Barnwell v. CLP Corp.

264 So. 3d 841
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedMay 11, 2018
Docket1170115
StatusPublished

This text of 264 So. 3d 841 (Barnwell v. CLP Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barnwell v. CLP Corp., 264 So. 3d 841 (Ala. 2018).

Opinion

BRYAN, Justice.

Andre Barnwell, the plaintiff below, appeals from a summary judgment entered in favor of CLP Corporation ("CLP"), the defendant below. This is the second time these parties have been before this Court. In Barnwell v. CLP Corp., 235 So.3d 238 (Ala. 2017), we reversed a summary judgment entered in favor of CLP and remanded the case. Because in the first appeal we decided in favor of Barnwell the dispositive issues presented by the current appeal, we again reverse and remand.

As we noted in our first opinion involving these parties, CLP owns and operates a McDonald's fast-food restaurant ("the restaurant"). Barnwell sued CLP, alleging that he was injured when he slipped and fell in the restaurant. CLP moved for a summary judgment, arguing that the alleged fall was caused by an open and obvious danger and that part of Barnwell's testimony about the alleged fall was unreliable and should not be considered. CLP also filed a motion to strike Barnwell's affidavit and part of his earlier deposition. In that motion, CLP argued that Barnwell's affidavit testimony conflicted with his deposition testimony. CLP also argued that part of Barnwell's deposition testimony regarding the accident is contradicted by photographs showing the interior of the restaurant. In August 2016, the circuit court entered an order granting CLP's motion for a summary judgment, without stating a reason. The circuit court did not enter an order indicating a ruling on CLP's motion to strike.

Barnwell appealed to this Court, and we reversed the summary judgment and remanded the case. Early in our analysis, we considered whether the circuit court had considered Barnwell's affidavit and full deposition in ruling on CLP's summary-judgment motion. As noted, CLP had filed a motion to strike Barnwell's affidavit and part of his deposition. We stated: "The circuit court did not enter an order specifically denying CLP's motion to strike. However, in entering its summary judgment in favor of CLP, the circuit court specifically stated that it had considered all the evidence before it. The circuit court clearly did not find CLP's argument [for striking the evidence] convincing." Barnwell, 235 So.3d at 243.

Thus, in the first appeal, we determined that the circuit court had considered Barnwell's affidavit and full deposition in ruling on the summary-judgment motion. We later addressed whether the circuit court's consideration of that evidence was proper, i.e., whether that evidence was admissible. See, e.g., Tanksley v. ProSoft Automation, Inc., 982 So.2d 1046, 1053 (Ala. 2007) (stating *843that evidence submitted in opposition to a summary-judgment motion must be admissible and refusing to consider, on de novo review of a summary judgment, inadmissible evidence the circuit court should have struck before it ruled on the summary-judgment motion). That determination was key, because the disputed evidence was crucial to Barnwell's attempt to withstand the summary-judgment motion. As we will discuss in more detail below, we determined that the disputed evidence was properly before the circuit court. Based on the evidence that the circuit court properly had before it, i.e., Barnwell's affidavit and full deposition, and its indication in the summary-judgment order that it had considered "all the evidence" before it, we concluded that the circuit court had erred in entering a summary judgment in favor of CLP, and we reversed the summary judgment and remanded the case. More specifically, Barnwell's affidavit and his full deposition provided evidence supporting Barnwell's claim, thus precluding a summary judgment on the ground that such evidence was lacking, and CLP had not presented any evidence establishing that the dangerous condition that allegedly caused the fall was open and obvious.

After we remanded the case, CLP filed a renewed motion to strike Barnwell's affidavit and part of his deposition. The renewed motion to strike presents the same substantive grounds as did the original motion to strike, but there is one difference between the two motions. In the renewed motion to strike, CLP contended that the circuit court, in considering the original motion to strike at a hearing before the entry of the first summary judgment, actually had ruled from the bench that the motion to strike was due to be granted. As noted, before the first appeal, the circuit court had never entered an order ruling on the original motion to strike. In the renewed motion to strike, CLP asked the circuit court to grant the motion to strike "for a second time" and to enter an order to that effect. CLP also filed a renewed summary-judgment motion that is substantively the same as CLP's original summary-judgment motion. Barnwell responded to the renewed motion to strike and the renewed summary-judgment motion, arguing that this Court had already decided the issues raised by those filings.

The circuit court subsequently entered an order granting CLP's renewed motion to strike. The circuit court struck Barnwell's affidavit and parts of his deposition because the circuit court concluded that they conflicted with each other. On the same day the circuit court granted the motion to strike, the circuit court entered a summary judgment in favor of CLP, stating, in pertinent part:

"During the original hearing on [CLP's] Motion for Summary Judgment and Motion to Strike held on August 15, 2016, this Court ruled that [Barnwell's] affidavit and certain [deposition] testimony were due to be stricken from the record, and summary judgment was due to be granted for [CLP]. This Court entered an order granting [CLP's] Summary Judgment. However, this Court did not enter a separate order granting [CLP's] Motion to Strike, although this Court ruled from the bench that the Motion to Strike was due to be granted.
"Upon detailed review of the Supreme Court's opinion [reversing the first summary judgment], it is ... this Court's opinion that the Supreme Court was unaware of this Court's decision to grant [CLP's] Motion to Strike. ...
"Despite relying on the misunderstanding that this Court [had] denied [CLP's] Motion to Strike, the Supreme Court opined, 'Of course, if [Barnwell's *844affidavit and deposition] were not considered by the circuit court, there would be no evidence supporting the allegations in Barnwell's complaint and, thus, CLP would be entitled to a summary judgment in its favor.' This Court clarifies that it in fact granted [CLP's] prior Motion to Strike. As such, it appears to this Court, based the Supreme Court's Opinion, that had [the Supreme Court] been informed of this Court's prior decision to grant [CLP's] Motion to Strike, CLP would be entitled to summary judgment.
"[CLP's] Renewed Motion to Strike has been granted. Subsequently, [Barnwell] has once again failed to present sufficient evidence to overcome [CLP's] Renewed Motion for Summary Judgment."

Following the denial of his postjudgment motion, Barnwell once again appealed to this Court.

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Bluebook (online)
264 So. 3d 841, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barnwell-v-clp-corp-ala-2018.