Davis v. Lovely

CourtSuperior Court of Maine
DecidedAugust 11, 2020
DocketCUMbcd-cv-18-26
StatusUnpublished

This text of Davis v. Lovely (Davis v. Lovely) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. Lovely, (Me. Super. Ct. 2020).

Opinion

STATE OF MAINE BUSINESS & CONSUMER DOCKET CUMBERLAND, ss. DOCKET NO. BCD-CV-18-26

SARAH K. SHED, PERSONAL ) REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ESTATE ) OF JOEL D. DAVIS ) ) Plaintiff ) ) v. ) ) ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFF’S WILLIAM E. LOVELY and A.B.J. ) MOTION FOR SUMMARY GENERAL CONTRACTOR, INC., ) JUDGMENT ) Defendants ) ) ____________________________________) ) WILLIAM E. LOVELY and A.B.J. ) GENERAL CONTRACTOR, INC., ) ) Counter-Plaintiffs, ) ) v. ) ) JOEL E. DAVIS, ) ) Counter-Defendant )

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff Joel D. Davis 1 (“Davis” or “Plaintiff”) filed an Amended Complaint against

William Lovely (“Lovely”) and A.B.J. General Contractor, Inc. (“A.B.J.”) claiming breach of

contract, breach of duties as a member of a limited liability company, breach of covenant of good

faith and fair dealing, unjust enrichment, interference with advantageous business opportunity,

intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, fraud and seeking declaratory

1 Sarah K. Shed, Personal Representative of the Estate of Joel D. Davis, has since been substituted as the

Plaintiff in this matter.

1 judgment. Lovely and A.B.J. deny the allegations and filed a Counterclaim alleging breach of

good faith and fiduciary duties, breach of contract, fraud, contribution, unjust enrichment,

declaratory judgment unit pledge agreement, and declaratory judgment security interest in Lovely

property. Davis subsequently filed a Motion for Summary Judgment2 against Lovely3 on Count I

(Breach of Contract), Count II (Breach of Duty as Member of a Limited Liability Company), Count

IV (Unjust Enrichment), Count VII(first) (Intentional Misrepresentation) and Count VII(third)

(Fraud) of Davis’ Complaint.4 For the reasons discussed below, the Court denies Davis’ Motion

for Summary Judgment.

UNTIMELINESS

Before embarking on a substantive review of Plaintiff’s Motion, the Court addresses the

untimeliness issue. The Motion is untimely, and filed in violation of the Scheduling Order

deadlines and rules of the Business and Consumer Docket (“BCD”). By Order dated July 9, 2020,

the Court denied Plaintiff’s request for an extension of time to file a Motion for Summary

Judgment. Accordingly, Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment is denied as untimely and in

violation of the Scheduling Order. Even if the Motion were timely, however, as discussed below,

it would still be denied.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

In deciding a motion for summary judgment under M.R. Civ. P. 56, the Court must

determine whether: (1) a “separate, short, and concise statement of material facts” establishes that

2 Although captioned a Motion for Summary Judgment, Plaintiff’s Motion is actually a Motion for Partial

Summary judgment, since the Motion seeks summary judgment on only some of his counts. Despite only seeking partial summary judgment, Plaintiff’s Motion and accompanying materials are of unusual length and volume. Plaintiff’s Motion to Allow a Longer [Reply] Memo is being denied this same date. 3 The Motion for Summary Judgment addresses Counts that appear to only be pled against Lovely. A.B.J. is

unrepresented and has not been participating in the litigation. 4 Plaintiff’s numbering of counts in the Complaint is erroneous and confusing. For instance, there is no Count

V, but the Complaint contains three counts all designated Count VII.

2 “there is no genuine issue of material fact to be tried,” (M.R. Civ. P. 56(h)(1)), and (2) each

statement of material fact is supported by reference to the record and facts that would be

“admissible in evidence.” (M.R. Civ. P. 56(e)). Facts that are supported by record citations and

are not “properly converted” are deemed admitted. M.R. Civ. P. 56(h)(4). See Cash, LLC v. Kulas,

2011 ME 70, ¶ 9, 21 A.3d 1015 (“A moving party’s factual assertions may not be deemed admitted

because of an improper response unless those factual assertions are properly supported.”)

Therefore, “[a]s the moving party with the ultimate burden of proof, [the plaintiff] bears the initial

responsibility of demonstrating the absence of a genuine issue of material fact through a properly

supported statement of material facts.” Id. The plaintiff may support its assertions by providing

supportive affidavits “made on personal knowledge, [setting] forth such facts as would be

admissible in evidence, and [showing] affirmatively that the affiant is competent to testify to the

matters stated therein.” M.R. Civ. P. 56(e). The Law Court has noted that the rules “require that

each statement of material fact must directly refer the court to ‘the specific portions of the record

from which each fact is drawn.’” HSBC Bank USA, N.A. v. Gabay, 2011 ME 101, ¶ 9, 28 A.3d

1158 (quoting Levine v. R.B.K. Caly Corp., 2001 ME 77, ¶ 9, 770 A.2d 653); see also M.R. Civ.

P. 56(h)(3) (“The reply statement shall admit, deny or qualify such additional facts by reference to

the numbered paragraphs of the opposing party’s statement of material facts and unless a fact is

admitted, shall support each denial or qualification by a record citation as required by paragraph

(4) of this rule.”).

FACTS

William E. Lovely (“Lovely”) is President of A.B.J. General Contractor, Inc. (“ABJ”).

(Supp.’g S.M.F. ¶ 1.) In 20ll, Lovely became a co-owner of Northeast Meats, LLC. (Id. ¶ 4. ) In

early 2015, Davis and Lovely met and agreed to start a new meat processing company, Central

3 Maine Meats, LLC (“CMM”) (Id. ¶ 14.) Thereafter, the relationship between and among Davis,

Lovely, and CMM became extremely complicated and convoluted. The Court is unable to make

any further findings of undisputed material facts, for two reasons. First, Plaintiff’s statements of

material facts suffer from multiple failures to comply with the requirements of M.R. Civ. P 56(h).5

Second, the material facts are disputed by Lovely.

ANALYSIS

Plaintiff seeks summary judgment on five of the nine counts in his Complaint. The Court

will address in turn each of the Counts for which Davis seeks summary judgment.

Count I: Breach of Contract

“A breach of contract claim accrues when the defendant breaches a contract,” such as when

the “contract fails to provide the bargained-for benefit.” York Cty. v. PropertyInfo Corp., 2019 ME

12, ¶ 18, 200 A.3d 803 (quotation marks omitted). To establish that there is a legally binding

contract, Plaintiff must prove there was a meeting of the minds or mutual assent “to be bound by

all the material terms of the contract.” Tobin v. Barter, 2014 ME 51, ¶ 9, 89 A.3d 1088 (internal

quotation and alteration omitted). To obtain relief for a breach, Plaintiff must show that there was

a breach of a material term by Defendant, and this breach caused damages. Id. ¶ 10. In this case,

Davis has failed to establish as a matter of undisputed fact what was promised in the alleged

contract, and hence whether there was a meeting of the minds. Accordingly, Plaintiff’s request for

summary judgment on Count I is denied.

5 The problems are too numerous to catalog, and so the Court only briefly summarizes some of the issues. In

many instances, Plaintiff fails to comply with the requirement for separate, short, concise statements of material fact. The affidavits submitted by Plaintiff repeatedly fail to properly lay the foundation for admissible evidence. Plaintiff frequently relies on records that are hearsay, uncertified, contain unidentified persons’ handwriting, or are incomplete.

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Davis v. Lovely, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-lovely-mesuperct-2020.