Adams v. HGC Riverchase LLC

District Court, N.D. Alabama·Decided July 10, 2024·No. 2:23-cv-01540·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA SOUTHERN DIVISION

ELAINE ADAMS, } } Plaintiff, } } v. } Case No.: 2:23-cv-1540-RDP } HGC RIVERCHASE, LLC, } } Defendant. }

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER This matter is before the court on Plaintiff Elaine Adams’s Amended Motion for Reconsideration. (Doc. # 26). The Motion has been fully briefed. (Docs. # 26, 27, 30). For the reasons discussed below, the Motion (Doc. # 26) is DENIED. I. Background Tragically, on August 22, 2023, eighteen-year-old Reginald D. Adams drowned at the Riverchase Country Club after going down a slide connected to the pool into twelve feet of water. (Doc. # 1 ¶ 5). On November 13, 2023, his mother, Plaintiff Elaine Adams, filed this action against Defendant HGC Riverchase, LLC, the company that owned, operated, and controlled the premises and pool at the Riverchase Country Club. (Doc. # 1). The original Complaint asserted five causes of action against Defendant: (1) Count I – Negligence; (2) Count II – Wantonness; (3) Count III – Negligent Hiring, Training, and Supervision; (4) Count IV – Wanton Hiring, Training, and Supervision; and (5) Count V – Negligence Per Se. (Id.). On January 4, 2024, Defendant responded to the Complaint by filing a Motion to Dismiss. (Doc. # 4). The Motion sought dismissal of Counts I and II in part and Count V in its entirety for failure to state a claim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). (Id. at 2-3). In addition, the Motion sought to dismiss the entire Complaint without prejudice under Rules 8(a)(2) and 10(b) as a shotgun pleading. (Id. at 4-11). On May 23, 2024, the court entered a Memorandum Opinion and Order granting in part and denying in part Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss. (Docs. # 22; 23). The court denied

Defendant’s request to partially dismiss Counts I and II. (Docs. # 22 at 10; 23). However, the court dismissed Plaintiff’s negligence per se claim without prejudice because Plaintiff had not pled that Defendant violated a statute that was enacted to protect a specific class of people to which the deceased belong. (Docs. # 22 at 7-8; 23). In addition, the court dismissed the Complaint in its entirety without prejudice as a shotgun pleading but granted Plaintiff the opportunity to file an amended complaint to remedy the pleading deficiencies. (Docs. # 22 at 13- 14; 23). On June 6, 2024, Plaintiff filed an Amended Motion for Reconsideration. (Doc. # 26).1 The Amended Motion for Reconsideration requests the court to reconsider only its decision to

dismiss Plaintiff’s negligence per se claim. II. Legal Standard The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do not specifically authorize motions for reconsideration, but they are common enough in practice. However, “[i]n the interests of finality and conservation of scarce judicial resources, reconsideration of an order is an extraordinary remedy and is employed sparingly.” Gougler v. Sirius Products, Inc., 370 F. Supp. 2d 1185, 1189 (S.D. Ala. 2005); see also Spellman v. Haley, 2004 WL 866837, *2 (M.D. Ala. 2002).

1 Plaintiff inadvertently filed a draft version of her Motion for Reconsideration on June 6, 2024. (Doc. # 24). However, the next day, Plaintiff filed an Amended Motion for Reconsideration that substituted the draft version of the motion with the final version. (Doc. # 26). Although this court has discretion to reconsider its orders, motions for reconsideration are disfavored. See, e.g., Iberiabank v. Case Constr., LLC, 2015 WL 5457889, *2 (S.D. Ala. 2015). Courts have made clear that a motion to reconsider is not a vehicle to relitigate old matters, assert novel arguments, or present evidence that could have been raised previously: Far too often, litigants operate under the flawed assumption that any adverse ruling … confers upon them license to move for reconsideration, vacatur, alteration or amendment as a matter of course, and to utilize that motion as a platform to criticize the judge’s reasoning, to litigate issues that have already been decided, to champion new arguments that could have been made before, and otherwise to attempt a “do-over” to erase a disappointing outcome. This is improper.

Garrett v. Stanton, 2010 WL 320492, *2 (S.D. Ala. 2010); see also Michael Linet, Inc. v. Vill. of Wellington, Fla., 408 F.3d 757, 763 (11th Cir. 2005) (finding that a motion to reconsider may not be used to “relitigate old matters, raise argument[s] or present evidence that could have been raised prior to the entry of judgment.”); Hughes v. Stryker Sales Corp., 2010 WL 2608957, *2 (S.D. Ala. 2010) (rejecting notion that motions to reconsider “are appropriate whenever the losing part thinks the [d]istrict [c]ourt got it wrong.”). Motions to reconsider “cannot be brought solely to relitigate issues already raised.” Harris v. Corrs. Corp. of Am., 433 F. App’x 824, 825 (11th Cir. 2011). Instead, as a general rule, “[a] motion to reconsider is only available when a party presents the court with evidence of an intervening change in controlling law, the availability of new evidence, or the need to correct clear error or manifest injustice.” Busby v. JRHBW Realty, Inc., 2006 WL 8446617, at *1 (N.D. Ala. 2006); see also Harris, 433 F. App’x at 825. III. Discussion Plaintiff’s Motion urges the court to reconsider the dismissal of her negligence per se claim without prejudice. Because this request centers around a prior ruling, the court briefly summarizes the applicable caselaw and the inquiry relevant to its prior decision before evaluating Plaintiff’s arguments for reconsideration. “The doctrine of negligence per se or negligence as a matter of law arises from the premise that the legislature may enact a statute that replaces the common-law standard of the reasonably prudent person with an absolute, required standard of care.” Parker Bldg. Servs. Co.,

Inc. v. Lightsey ex rel. Lightsey, 925 So. 2d 927, 930-31 (Ala. 2005). “When the legislature adopts such a statute, anyone who violates it and causes an injury to a person whom the statute was intended to protect is liable for negligence per se.” Id. at 931. However, to succeed on a claim of negligence per se, a plaintiff must prove that: (1) the statute the defendant is charged with violating was enacted to protect a class of persons to which the plaintiff belonged; (2) the plaintiff’s injury was the kind of injury contemplated by the statute; (3) the defendant violated the statute; and (4) the defendant’s violation of the statute proximately caused the plaintiff’s injury. Dickinson v. Land Devs. Constr. Co., Inc., 882 So. 2d 291, 302 (Ala. 2003) (citing Elder v. E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., 479 So. 2d 1243, 1248 (Ala. 1985)).

Count V of Plaintiff’s original Complaint asserted a claim for negligence per se on the basis that Defendant violated applicable rules and regulations for a public pool of the size involved in this case by failing to have a lifeguard chair staffed by a certified lifeguard. (Doc. # 1). However, as noted in the court’s opinion, Plaintiff failed to cite to a single rule or regulation to support this particular contention in the Complaint. (Doc. # 22 at 5).

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