Judge Warren of the Oakland County Circuit Court granted Defendant’s motion for summary disposition in a case where medical providers submitted assignments purporting to transfer their patient’s right to collect PIP benefits from two companies that were not Defendant.
Plaintiffs argued that these assignments should allow them to bring a cause of action against Defendant, an automobile insurance company, because of its business relationship with the other companies. They claimed Defendant and the other companies were all essentially the same entity and it was just a clerical mistake that the assignments did not name Defendant.
Judge Warren agreed with defense attorneys Patrick J. Walbridge and Kevin P. Moloughney, who argued that the assignments could not be construed as transferring any cause of action against Defendant that the patient might have possessed.
