Boykin v. PPG Industries, Inc.

987 So. 2d 838, 2008 La.App. 3 Cir. 0117, 2008 La. App. LEXIS 962, 2008 WL 2435055
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 18, 2008
Docket2008-0117
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 987 So. 2d 838 (Boykin v. PPG Industries, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boykin v. PPG Industries, Inc., 987 So. 2d 838, 2008 La.App. 3 Cir. 0117, 2008 La. App. LEXIS 962, 2008 WL 2435055 (La. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

987 So.2d 838 (2008)

Tamerah BOYKIN, et al.
v.
PPG INDUSTRIES, INC., et al.

No. 2008-0117.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

June 18, 2008.

*840 J. Rock Palermo, III, Bice, Palermo & Veron, Gregory P. Marceaux, Marceaux Law Firm, Lake Charles, LA, for Plaintiffs/Appellees, Tamerah Boykin Sherry Dell Trahan.

Paul L. Veazey, Jr., Stockwell, Sievert, Viccellio, Clements & Shaddock, L.L.P., Lake Charles, LA, for Defendant/Appellant, PPG Industries, Inc.

Terry Thibodeaux Frohn & Thibodeaux, L.L.C. Lake Charles, LA, for Third Party Defendants/Appellants, Day & Zimmerman, L.L.C., American Home Assurance Company, and National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA.

Court composed of JIMMIE C. PETERS, MICHAEL G. SULLIVAN, and J. DAVID PAINTER, Judges.

PETERS, J.

This litigation has as its origin a May 15, 2002 accident, in which Tamerah Boykin sustained personal injuries from exposure to chlorine gas at the Lake Charles, Louisiana facility of PPG Industries, Inc. (PPG). The appeal now before us arises from a judgment rendered in the suit filed by Ms. Boykin to recover the damages she sustained in the accident. In that judgment, the trial court granted PPG indemnification from Ms. Boykin's employer, Day & Zimmerman, L.L.C. (D & Z), and D & Z's insurers for all amounts PPG had paid Ms. Boykin as damages and awarded PPG attorney fees and expenses associated with its defense of Ms. Boykin's suit as well as the enforcement of D & Z's indemnity obligations. However, the trial court rejected PPG's request for statutory penalties against D & Z's insurers, American Home Assurance Company (American Home) and National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, Pa. (National Fire). D & Z and its two insurers have appealed the judgment, as has PPG. For the following reasons, we reverse the trial court judgment in part, affirm it in part, and render summary judgment dismissing D & Z, American Home, and National Fire from the litigation.

DISCUSSION OF THE RECORD

On November 30, 2000, PPG and D & Z entered into a contract wherein D & Z agreed to provide security services in the form of trained security guards for PPG at its Lake Charles, Louisiana chemical plant. The security service agreement further required that D & Z list PPG as an "additional insured" on its liability insurance policies and provided for indemnification to PPG for certain losses it might sustain during the term of the contract. After execution of the security service agreement, D & Z listed PPG as an additional insured on its policies with American Home and National Fire. In December of 2000 and January of 2001, PPG generated, and D & Z's regional account executive signed, two purchase orders for the security guard services, using PPG's standard *841 form for Louisiana, which contained a provision requiring that PPG be indemnified for its own negligence.

Ms. Boykin was one of the security guards provided to PPG by D & Z. After the May 15, 2002 accident, she and her mother, Sherry Dell Trahan, brought suit to recover monetary damages for the injuries Ms. Boykin sustained.[1] PPG, whom Ms. Boykin named as one of the defendants in the suit, responded in part to the suit by filing a third-party demand against D & Z, American Home, and National Fire. In the third-party demand, PPG sought indemnification from the third-party defendants for any payments it might be required to make to Ms. Boykin and for all expenses it might incur in defending her claim and enforcing the indemnification agreement. The third-party defendants responded to PPG's claim by asserting that they owed no indemnification or legal defense to PPG. Before trial, Ms. Boykin reached a settlement agreement with PPG in which PPG paid her $800,000.00 and agreed to pay her an additional sum equal to one-half of any amount it recovered from the third-party defendants.

After consummation of the settlement, both PPG and the third-party defendants filed motions for summary judgment addressing the indemnification and defense issues. Hearings on these motions resulted in an August 21, 2007 judgment in which the trial court granted partial summary judgment in favor of the third-party defendants, finding that the purchase orders did not amend the security service agreement to require that PPG be indemnified for its own negligence, but rejected their motion for summary judgment seeking dismissal of PPG's claim against them under the November 30, 2000 security service agreement. In the same judgment, the trial court granted PPG's motion for summary judgment, finding that the security service agreement provided for PPG's indemnification from D & Z and American Home for the $800,000.00 paid Ms. Boykin in settlement. The judgment further awarded PPG $467,361.51 as attorney fees and costs incurred in the defense of Ms. Boykin's claim, and an additional $218,081.26 as attorney fees and costs incurred in the enforcement of the indemnity agreement. Finally, the judgment rejected PPG's request for statutory penalties provided for in La.R.S. 22:658 and La.R.S. 22:1220.

D & Z, American Home, and National Fire[2] appealed, asserting that the trial court erred in granting PPG's motion for summary judgment and in rejecting their motion for summary judgment. Specifically, they argue that the security service agreement between D & Z and PPG did not obligate D & Z and its insurers to indemnify or defend PPG for its own legal fault in causing Ms. Boykin's injuries, and that any payment by PPG for the fault of D & Z constituted a voluntary payment for which PPG could not recover under the contract. Furthermore, the third-party defendants argue, the security service agreement did not provide for PPG's recovery of attorney fees and expenses in enforcing the indemnity agreement, and the trial court erred in allowing PPG to recover such expenses.

PPG asserts in its appeal that the trial court erred in not finding that American Home was arbitrary and capricious in failing to defend it from Ms. Boykin's suit. *842 Thus, PPG asserts that it should have been awarded penalties as provided for in La.R.S. 22:658 and La.R.S. 22:1220. PPG also argues on appeal that the trial court erred in failing to find that the subsequent purchase order agreement entered into by it and D & Z provided it the right to indemnity over and above the language of the November 30, 2000 security service agreement.

OPINION

In Babin v. Winn-Dixie Louisiana, Inc., 00-78, pp. 3-4 (La.6/30/00), 764 So.2d 37, 39-40, the Louisiana Supreme Court addressed the conditions under which a summary judgment should be granted:

A motion for summary judgment will be granted "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to material fact, and that mover is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." La.Code Civ.P. art. 966(B). This article was amended in 1996 to provide that "summary judgment procedure is designed to secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action.... The procedure is favored and shall be construed to accomplish these ends." La.Code Civ.P. art. 966(A)(2).

Appellate courts review a trial court's grant or denial of a motion for summary judgment using the de novo standard of review, under the same criteria that govern the trial court's consideration of whether a summary judgment is appropriate in any given case. Indep. Fire Ins. Co. v. Sunbeam Corp.,

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Bluebook (online)
987 So. 2d 838, 2008 La.App. 3 Cir. 0117, 2008 La. App. LEXIS 962, 2008 WL 2435055, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boykin-v-ppg-industries-inc-lactapp-2008.