Carter v. Steak House Steaks, Inc.

153 So. 3d 1162, 13 La.App. 3 Cir. 799, 2014 WL 656989, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 434
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 19, 2014
DocketNos. 13-799, 13-918
StatusPublished

This text of 153 So. 3d 1162 (Carter v. Steak House Steaks, 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
Carter v. Steak House Steaks, Inc., 153 So. 3d 1162, 13 La.App. 3 Cir. 799, 2014 WL 656989, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 434 (La. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

GREMILLION, Judge.

hln this consolidated matter, the plaintiffs, Darnell and Michelle Carter, the natural parents of Kyris Carter, deceased, appeal the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants, CampNations, LLC and Louisiana Capital Foods, LLC (the event organizer and landowner defendants), and James Nations, Jr., Steak House Steaks, Inc., and Caitlin Specialty Insurance Company1 (Steak House defendants). For the following reasons, we affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Kyris Carter was an employee of Steak House Steaks, Inc. Shortly after leaving his employment with Steak House Steaks, Kyris, who was twenty-four years old, attended a company gathering on October 3, 2010, with his best friend, Wisdom Adike-ma. The party was located at the company’s vacation rental on False River in Pointe Coupee Parish. Steak House Steaks decided to have the party to reward its employees for meeting certain goals. The property was owned by CampNations, LLC, and the event was organized by Louisiana Capital Foods, LLC. James Nations, Jr. owns CampNations, LLC. Tragically, Kyris drowned in False River after jumping off the second story of a pier. His parents thereafter filed a lawsuit for damages.

[1164]*1164All defendants filed motions for summary judgment, which the trial court granted. The trial court found that there was no genuine issue of material fact that Kyris jumped off of a pier located at a neighboring property rather than any |2property owned by defendants.2 The Carters filed a motion for new trial which was denied. The Carters now appeal.

ISSUES

In docket number 13-918, defendants assign as error:3

1.The Trial Court erred in granting Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment despite the following documented material issues of fact inherent in the Affidavits and other evidence presented by Plaintiffs and Defendant:
a. Whether or not Kyris Carter entered False River and drowned from the property located at 9353 Island Rd, Ventress, LA, as referenced in the Pointe Coupee Sher-riff s Office’s Investigative Report;
b. Whether there was an unreasonable risk of injury;
c. Whether or not Kyris Carter voluntarily jumped into False River, leading to his drowning death;
d. Whether or not any witness, as referenced in Defendant’s Memorandum in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment, saw Kyris Carter “voluntarily jump into the subject water from an adjacent, neighboring property”,
e. Whether or not Wisdom Adikema, as referenced as a witness in Defendants’ Exhibit C, affidavit of Gerald Major, gave conflicting statements to Mr. Major (Defendants’ insurance claims adjuster), Officer Clyde McCoy (Plaintiffs’ independent investigator), Darnell and Michelle Carter (parents of the decedent), and Officer Torrick Friels (Point Coupee Sheriffs Officer who responded to the scene of the drowning incident);
f.Whether or not the nonexistence of lifeguards, lifejackets, inádequa-cy of signage, and lack of other life saving, preventative mechanisms, rendered defendants’ property defective; and
⅛ Whether or not adequate life saving, preventative measures were taken by the organizers of this company gathering given the fact that alcohol was to be served to attendees at a night-time gathering adjacent to False River.
2. The trial court failed to apply any scrutiny to the affidavit and summaries of recorded statements provide[d] by the Defendants in support of their motions for summary judgment.
3. The trial court erred in relying on the affidavit of a third person who had no direct knowledge of the drowning incident.

DISCUSSION

An appellate court reviews a grant of summary judgment de novo,, applying the same standards as would a trial court. Schroeder v. Bd. of Supervisors, of La. State Univ., 591 So.2d 342 (La.1991). Summary judgment is governed by La. Code Civ.P. arts. 966 and 967. Article [1165]*1165966(c)(2), as amended by Act 483 of 1997, provides that while the burden of proving entitlement to summary judgment rests with the mover, if the mover will not bear the burden of proof at trial on the matter that is before the court on the motion for summary judgment, the mover’s burdén on the motion does not require him to negate all essential facts of the adverse party’s claim, action, or defense, but rather to point out to the court that there is an absence of factual support for one or more elements essential to the adverse party’s claim, action, or defense. Thereafter, if the adverse party fails to produce factual support sufficient to establish that he will be able to satisfy his evidentiary burden of proof at trial, there is no genuine issue of material fact. Hardy v. Bowie, 98-2821 (La.9/8/99), 744 So.2d 606.

The Carters asserted a negligence theory under La.Civ.Code art. 2317.1, which states:

|4The owner or custodian of a thing is answerable for damage occasioned by its ruin, vice, or defect, only upon a showing that he knew or, in the exercise of reasonable care, should have known of the ruin, vice, or defect which caused the damage, that the damage could have been prevented by the exercise of reasonable care, and that he failed to exercise such reasonable care. Nothing in this Article shall preclude the court from the application of the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur in an appropriate case.

The determination of whether a person has custody or garde of a thing such that he will be liable for any damages it may cause is a factual determination. Rando v. Anco Insulations, Inc., 08-1163, 08-1169 (La.5/22/09), 16 So.3d 1065. Plaintiffs argue that there is a genuine issue of fact as to whether Kyris jumped off a neighboring pier and that even if he did, defendants were still liable because there was an “implied and explicit invitation from the enterprise’s employees to use the [neighbor’s] pier for jumping into the river.”

Plaintiffs argue that the trial court failed to scrutinize the affidavits and recorded testimony because the witnesses’ summarized statements only mentioned the neighboring pier a month after the accident occurred.

Plaintiffs further argue that the trial court failed to question the veracity of the statements made by the witnesses because the coroner’s report found no alcohol in Kyris’s body, whereas the witnesses all testified that he had a small amount of alcohol at the party. Further, plaintiffs argue that the insurance adjustor’s affidavit should be afforded little weight because it was based on second-hand knowledge. Finally, plaintiffs argue that the trial court failed to consider the fact that there were competing affidavits.

Four eyewitnesses to the accident stated that Kyris jumped off the neighboring second-story pier and accidentally drowned. The neighbor’s property was separated from the CampNations address by a fence, but three party attendees, | sAdikema, Kyr-is, and Ronald Houston, walked around it at the end of the yard where the fence meets the river.

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Related

Schroeder v. Board of Sup'rs
591 So. 2d 342 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1991)
Rando v. Anco Insulations Inc.
16 So. 3d 1065 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2009)
Hardy v. Bowie
744 So. 2d 606 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1999)

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153 So. 3d 1162, 13 La.App. 3 Cir. 799, 2014 WL 656989, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 434, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carter-v-steak-house-steaks-inc-lactapp-2014.