On Friday, September 25, 2009, the Michigan Supreme Court granted leave to appeal in Hoover v. Michigan Mutual Insurance Co. The Court ordered the parties to address whether under the No-Fault Act, the defendant is obligated to pay for various costs including increases in property taxes, standard utility bills, homeowner's insurance, home maintenance costs, telephone bills, dumpster expenses, elevator inspection expenses, cleaning stipends paid to the accident victim's mother for time spent cleaning the victim's area of the home, and snow removal. The Court further ordered the parties to address whether Griffith v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 472 Mich. 521 (2005) was correctly decided. In Griffith, the Court concluded that food consumed by an accident victim while being cared for at home are not recoverable as "allowable expenses" under the No-Fault Act. The Coalition Protecting Auto No-Fault, an advocacy group including various health care provider groups and the Michigan Association of Justice, submitted an amicus brief.
The Court also vacated the Court of Appeals' judgment Braverman v. McCormick (In re McCormick), and remanded the case to the probate court to require an itemized accounting of the amounts that the petitioner and the receiver were paid from the estate. In People v. Lloyd, in lieu of granting leave to appeal, the Court remanded the case to the Court of Appeals to reconsider whether the trial court's error in admitting a 911 call was constitutional, whether the court had applied the proper "harmless beyond a reasonable doubt" standard, and whether the error was in fact harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
Finally, the Court denied leave to appeal in four cases.
