This is a similar question to the last post. Generally, if you own a car, that car insurance is the proper insurance to pay your medical bills for any car accident, whether you are in your car or not. If you don’t own a car but live with a relative (father, brother, uncle, cousin, etc.) that owns a car, then that car insurance is the correct insurance to pay your medical bills, whether you are in that relative’s car or not. If you don’t own a car nor live with a relative that owns a car, then the car you are in is the proper insurance to pay the PIP which will pay 80 percent of medical bills and 60 percent of wages following a car accident.
The scenario presented above presents the issue: what if you don’t own a car but the relative that you live with that owns an operable car doesn’t have insurance because it was cancelled or for any other reason it was not in effect? The answer here is that generally, under Florida law, you would be able to sue the at fault vehicle for the full amount of your medical bills. When you have PIP insurance available (not in this instance), the medical bills get paid generally within 30 days. Here you would have to sue the other person for the medical bills but at least you would be able to collect them from the other side (assuming there is sufficient insurance or ability to pay otherwise from the other car).
The cases that stand for the proposition an injured person is not punished or precluded PIP coverage due to a family member who owns an insured motor vehicle see also Farley v. Gateway, 302 So.2d 177 (Fla. 2d DCA 1974); State Farm v. Kraver, 364 So.2d 1259 (Fla. 3d DCA 1978); Gateway Insurance Co. v. Butler, 293 So.2d 738 (Fla. 3d DCA 1974). (claimant entitled to collect PIP benefits through owner of vehicle even though his father, with whom he resided, owned an uninsured vehicle.), Commercial Union Insurance Co. v. Williams, 309 So.2d 617 (Fla. 1st DCA 1975) (claimant entitled to collect PIP through owner of vehicle even though her mother, with whom he resided, had an uninsured vehicle.), Witko v. Liberty Mutual, 348 So.2d 52 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977) (claimant entitled to collect PIP through owner of vehicle even though her mother, with whom he resided, had an uninsured vehicle).
