Dartez v. Atlas Assurance Co.

746 So. 2d 777, 99 La.App. 3 Cir. 384, 1999 La. App. LEXIS 2998, 1999 WL 994182
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 3, 1999
DocketNo. 99-384
StatusPublished

This text of 746 So. 2d 777 (Dartez v. Atlas Assurance Co.) 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
Dartez v. Atlas Assurance Co., 746 So. 2d 777, 99 La.App. 3 Cir. 384, 1999 La. App. LEXIS 2998, 1999 WL 994182 (La. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

| WOODARD, Judge.

This is a personal injury suit. Ms. Dale Dartez filed suit for a slip and fall accident, which occurred in a rental storage facility, Jefferson Terrace Self Storage (JTSS) in New Iberia, Louisiana. She sued Mr. Virgil C. Reid, Mr. Daniel J. Gentry, and Ms. Lisa Banks, the owners of JTSS and its insurer, Atlas Assurance Company of America (Atlas). Mr. Reid, doing business as JTSS (JTSS), and Atlas answered and filed a third party demand against Ms. Margaret A. Dartez, Ms. Dale Dartez’s daughter, seeking indemnity under the terms of a rental storage lease which Ms. Margaret Dartez had executed six months earlier. Ms. Margaret Dartez filed a motion for summary judgment, seeking to have the third-party demand dismissed. JTSS filed a motion for summary judgment to have the indemnity provisions of the lease enforced. The trial court granted Ms. Margaret Dartez’s motion for summary judgment and denied that of JTSS and Atlas. JTSS and Atlas appeal. We affirm.

LFACTS

Ms. Margaret Dartez was the manager of the storage facility and had worked there for ten years prior to the accident. On June 24, 1995, she signed a “Rental Agreement # 1116” with JTSS for the rental of a self storage Unit Number 117. The agreement defined “Leased Space” as follows:

3. DESCRIPTION OF SPACE: In consideration of the covenants, conditions, and agreements herein contained to be kept and performed by Occupant, Owner does hereby lease to Occupant the herein described property, herein called “The leased space” at the self service storage facility, herein called “the facility” for the purposes of storing and/or removing personal property.

One of the provisions of that agreement in paragraph nine stated, in part:

OCCUPANT HEREBY AGREES TO INDEMNIFY AND HOLD HARMLESS THE OWNER FROM AND AGAINST ANY AND ALL MANNER OF CLAIM(S) FOR DAMAGES OR LOSS TO PERSONAL PROPERTY OR PERSONAL INJURY AND COSTS INCLUDING ATTORNEY’S FEES ARISING FROM OCCUPANT’S USE OF THE LEASED SPACE OR THE FACILITY, OR FROM ANY ACTIVITY, WORK, OR THING DONE, PERMITTED OR SUFFERED BY OCCUPANT IN OR ON THE LEASED SPACE OR AT THE FACILITY.

This agreement was in effect on February 3, 1996. On that date, Ms. Margaret Dartez’s mother, Ms. Dale Dartez, went to the facility to store some Christmas decorations. It was very cold and rainy. In front of Unit Number 117 was a puddle of [779]*779water which had become frozen. Ms. Dale Dartez parked her vehicle in front of the unit. While attempting to exit her vehicle, she slipped and fell on the ice, injuring her knees, back, and hand. Her injuries required considerable medical care. At the time of her fall, she was not in the rented unit, but was on the roadway area between two large buildings containing other JTSS storage units.

On January 29, 1997, Ms. Dale Dartez filed suit against Atlas, Mr. Reid, Mr. Gentz, and Ms. Banks, the owners, individually and doing business as JTSS. Mr. Reid d/b/a JTSS and Atlas joined Ms. Margaret Dartez as a third-party Defendant, seeking indemnification and attorney’s fees under the JTSS rental agreement for the injuries her mother sustained.

|sMs. Margaret Dartez filed a motion for summary judgment to dismiss Atlas’ and JTSS’ third party demand because: (1) the location where the accident occurred was a common accessory under JTSS’ control and was not part of the premises which Ms. Dartez leased; (2) the lease contract did not clearly and expressly provide indemnity language that the parties intended to hold Ms. Dartez responsible for JTSS’s negligence; and (3) La.R.S. 9:3221 was inapplicable to this case, as JTSS knew or should have known of the defect and had failed to remedy it in a reasonable time. Relying on the language of the lease agreement, Atlas and JTSS also filed a motion for summary judgment, alleging that they were entitled to complete indemnity from the third-party Defendant, Ms. Margaret Dartez.

On October 19, 1998, the trial court issued its reasons for judgment, explaining why it granted the summary judgment in favor of Ms. Dartez, dismissing Atlas’ and JTSS’ third-party demand. Also, it dismissed Atlas’ and JTSS’s motion for summary judgment. In its written reasons for judgment, the trial court relied on all three reasons which Ms. Dartez alleged in her motion. The court signed the judgment on October 26, 1998 and Atlas’ and JTSS’s order of appeal on December, 18, 1998.

LAW

Atlas and JTSS claim that the trial court erred in refusing to enforce the clear and unambiguous language of the contract between Ms. Margaret Dartez and JTSS, denying appellants’ motion for summary judgment and granting Ms. Margaret Dar-tez’s.

At the outset, we note that appellate courts review summary judgments de novo under the same criteria that governed the trial court’s consideration of whether or not summary judgment was appropriate. Schroeder v. Board of Sup’rs of La. State Univ., 591 So.2d 342 (La.1991); Soileau v. D & J Tire, Inc., 97-318 (La.App. 3 Cir. 10/8/97); 702 So.2d 818.

The law of summary judgment implemented in La.Code Civ.P. art. 966 was amended by Act No. 9 of the First Extraordinary Session of 1996. Further, in 1997, the legislature amended La.Code Civ.P. art. 966 to legislatively overturn jurisprudence inconsistent with Hayes v. Autin, 96-287 (La.App. 3 Cir. 12/26/96); 685 So.2d 691. In Hayes, we found that the legislature overruled the presumption against the grant of summary judgment. We stated that the amendment “levels the playing field” by [ ¿removing the overriding presumption in favor of trial on the merits and by equally scrutinizing, the supporting documents submitted by the mover and the nonmover. Hayes, 685 So.2d at 694.

La.Code Civ.P. art. 966(A)(2) now provides, in pertinent part, that “[t]he 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 those ends.” In other words, summary judgment is favored and shall be applied liberally. Townley v. City of Iowa, 97-493 (La.App. 3 Cir. 10/29/97); 702 So.2d 323.

[780]*780The amended provisions of La.Code Civ.P. art. 966 are procedural in nature and, thus, are subject to retroactive, as well as prospective, application. Kumpe v. State, 97-386 (La.App. 3 Cir. 10/8/97); 701 So.2d 498.

Summary judgment is proper when the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the mover is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. La.Code Civ.P. art. 966(B).

La.Code Civ.P. art. 966, as amended, charges the moving party with the burden of proving that summary judgment is appropriate. In doing so, the moving party’s supporting documentation must be sufficient to establish that no genuine issue of material fact remains at stake. Such a burden is not unlike that assigned to the moving party before the amendments. Townley, 702 So.2d 323. Once the mover makes a prima facie showing that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that summary judgment should be granted, the burden shifts to the nonmover.

The amendments to La.Code Civ.P. art. 966 require the nonmover to rebut the showing made by the mover of the nonexistence of a genuine issue of material fact. Townley, 702 So.2d 323.

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Related

Townley v. City of Iowa
702 So. 2d 323 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1997)
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Bluebook (online)
746 So. 2d 777, 99 La.App. 3 Cir. 384, 1999 La. App. LEXIS 2998, 1999 WL 994182, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dartez-v-atlas-assurance-co-lactapp-1999.