Plaintiff Lois Simmons (“Plaintiff”) was involved in a motor vehicle accident during the course of her employment while driving a vehicle insured by her employer. Plaintiff’s personal vehicle was uninsured at the time in violation of New Jersey law. After the accident, Plaintiff treated at a hospital for minor head wounds. She was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome and improved shortly thereafter.

Plaintiff later complained of neck, back, and shoulder pain, but objective testing revealed no evidence of permanent injury. At best, medical tests showed that Plaintiff suffered two minor cervical disc bulges, cervical degenerative changes, and mild tendonitis in her shoulder. She also failed to produce any medical reports stating that she had suffered a permanent injury which was causally related to the accident. The defendant driver and her insurer, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, moved for summary judgment based upon Plaintiff’s failure to satisfy the verbal threshold. Plaintiff argued that she was operating her employer’s insured vehicle, not her personal, uninsured vehicle at the time of the accident and, therefore, the verbal threshold did not apply. She further argued that her injuries were permanent in nature.

The trial court found that Plaintiff failed to maintain the required personal injury protection (“PIP”) for her vehicle and was unlawfully uninsured at the time of her accident. Therefore, the verbal threshold standard of AICRA applied to the subject accident. The trial court further concluded that Plaintiff failed to present evidence of a permanent injury. The court decided that Plaintiff did not satisfy the verbal threshold standard and granted the defendants summary judgment.

Plaintiff subsequently appealed the trial court’s decision. The Appellate Division reviewed the decision by applying a de novo standard, meaning that it had to decide whether a genuine issue of material fact should have prevented the trial court from granting summary judgment. The Appellate Division found that Plaintiff was required to maintain PIP coverage for her personal vehicle and, therefore, AICRA applied. Without PIP coverage, Plaintiff was an unlawfully uninsured driver in New Jersey at the time of her work-related automobile accident. Further, the Appellate Division found that Plaintiff failed to present medical evidence showing a permanent injury as required by AICRA’s verbal threshold standard. The Appellate Division affirmed the trial court’s decision to grant defendants summary judgment.

Insurers are well advised to heed this decision, as employees of insured companies are commonly involved in motor vehicle accidents in the course of their employment. During the investigation process, it is important to determine whether the injured employee maintained proper insurance coverage for his or her own personal vehicle. As demonstrated by the Simmons decision, a defendant’s insurer may be able to utilize AICRA’s verbal threshold standard to escape liability for a plaintiff’s work-related motor vehicle accident.