Eichelberger v. Sidney

771 So. 2d 863, 2000 WL 1643966
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 3, 2000
Docket34,040-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 771 So. 2d 863 (Eichelberger v. Sidney) 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
Eichelberger v. Sidney, 771 So. 2d 863, 2000 WL 1643966 (La. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

771 So.2d 863 (2000)

Patsy EICHELBERGER, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Georgia SIDNEY and National Hair Care Center, Inc., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 34,040-CA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

November 3, 2000.
Rehearing Denied November 30, 2000.

*864 Street & Street by C. Daniel Street, Monroe, Counsel for Appellant.

Snellings, Breard, Sartor, Inabnett & Trascher, L.L.P. by W. Michael Street, Monroe, Counsel for Appellee, National Hair Care Center, Inc.

Charles C. Trascher, III, Monroe, Counsel for Georgia Sidney.

Before CARAWAY, PEATROSS & KOSTELKA, JJ.

PEATROSS, J.

This action arose out of a physical altercation between co-employees of Defendant National Hair Care Center, Inc. ("National") which resulted in personal injury to Plaintiff, Patsy Eichelberger. Ms. Eichelberger filed suit against her fellow employee, Defendant Georgia Sidney, and National for damages sustained by her as a result of the intentional tort committed by Ms. Sidney. National filed a third party demand against its insurer, American Casualty Company ("American"). American filed a motion for summary judgment which was granted by the trial court, thereby dismissing it from the law suit. National then filed a motion for summary judgment alleging that, based on the facts as stated in Ms. Eichelberger's petition, it was not vicariously liable for Ms. Sidney's intentional tort as a matter of law. The trial court granted National's motion, without written reasons, thereby dismissing it from the law suit. The judgment granting National's motion was certified as final and Ms. Eichelberger now appeals that judgment.[1] For the reasons stated herein, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.

FACTS

Ms. Eichelberger and Ms. Sidney were both employed by National at the time of the incident, June 28, 1995. The two women worked in National's salon located in the super WalMart store in Monroe. Ms. Eichelberger was a hairdresser and Ms. Sidney was a receptionist. According to the petition, the following events took place on the day of the incident:

At all times pertinent hereto, on or about June 28, 1995, Patsy Eichelberger while acting in her course of employment as a licensed beautician, requested GEORGIA SIDNEY, who was employed as a receptionist, to select and place a movie into a video player to entertain the children of a customer to whom Patsy was applying a "permanent wave" to her hair. Georgia Sidney ignored Patsy's request to install the movie several times; therefore, Patsy Eichelberger, herself, retrieved a movie and placed it into the video cassette player. As Patsy Eichelberger stood up from the cassette player, Georgia Sidney walked over and suddenly grabbed Patsy by her arm and demanded to talk with her in a private office. Patsy refused and attempted to pull herself away from Georgia Sidney's grasp, but was unable and was physically pulled into a private office inside the hair salon where Georgia Sidney closed the door. Once inside, Georgia Sidney slapped, kicked and punched Patsy Eichelberger about the head, neck, back and knees. As a result of these intentional acts of violence, Patsy Eichelberger received numerous physical injuries which are made the subject of this petition (hereinafter sometimes referred to as the "Subject Assault and Battery").

As previously stated, taking the above version of facts as true, National filed a motion for summary judgment arguing that the undisputed facts established as a matter of law that Ms. Sidney's intentional acts were not within the scope of her employment and, therefore, National was not vicariously liable for any damages suffered by Ms. Eichelberger as a result of those intentional acts. After argument, *865 the trial court granted the motion without written reasons.[2]

DISCUSSION

We review summary judgments de novo under the same criteria that govern the district court's consideration of the appropriateness of summary judgment. Guillory v. Interstate Gas Station, 94-1767 (La.3/30/95), 653 So.2d 1152; Yarbrough v. Federal Land Bank of Jackson, 31,815 (La.App.2d Cir.3/31/99), 731 So.2d 482.

The legal principles regarding summary judgment are well settled. A motion for summary judgment is properly granted only if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories and admissions on file, together with affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to a material fact and that the mover is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. La. C.C.P. art. 966; Mixon v. Progressive Specialty Co., 29,698 (La.App.2d Cir.6/18/97), 697 So.2d 662.

The burden is on the party seeking summary judgment to establish that there is an absence of factual support for one or more of the essential elements of the adverse party's claims. When a motion for summary judgment has been filed and supported by evidence, however, the adverse party may no longer rely on the mere allegations or denials of his pleadings, but, through affidavits or otherwise, must set forth evidence demonstrating there is a genuine issue for trial. La. C.C.P. art. 967; Simoneaux v. E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., Inc., 483 So.2d 908 (La. 1986); Berzas v. OXY USA Inc., 29,835 (La.App.2d Cir.9/24/97), 699 So.2d 1149. If the nonmoving party then fails to produce factual support sufficient to establish that it will be able to satisfy its evidentiary burden at trial, there is no genuine issue of material fact. La. C.C.P. art. 966; Berzas, supra. Although the burden of proof remains the same under the recent amendment to La. C.C.P. art. 966, summary judgment procedure is now favored to secure the just, speedy and inexpensive determination of all except certain disallowed actions. Acts 1996, 1st Ex.Sess., No. 9.

As a threshold matter, we note that Ms. Eichelberger argues that granting the motion for summary judgment was error because National filed no supporting documentation with the motion. Since no depositions were filed and no affidavits were attached to the motion, Ms. Eichelberger submits that National completely failed to carry its burden. We disagree.

National's motion for summary judgment states that "the pleadings on file in the record hereof and the attachments hereto show that there is no genuine issue as to a material fact and that mover is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Attached to the motion was the memorandum in support thereof wherein National quoted the facts as alleged in Ms. Eichelberger's petition for damages, stating that "[s]olely for the purpose of the instant Motion for Summary Judgment, National Hair Care assumes that the confrontation which occurred between Eichelberger and Sidney occurred in the manner described by Eichelberger in her Petition for Damages, as quoted above." We find that National's failure to file any supporting affidavits or depositions with its motion for summary judgment was not fatal to the motion for the simple reason that National did not dispute the facts as alleged by Ms. Eichelberger as stated in her petition.[3]

Since National accepted as true the version of events as stated in the petition, our next inquiry is whether or not, in opposition to National's motion, Ms. Eichelberger produced factual support sufficient to survive summary judgment. As previously stated, as the nonmoving party, she *866 must present specific facts showing that material facts are still at issue. In opposing National's motion, Ms.

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Bluebook (online)
771 So. 2d 863, 2000 WL 1643966, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eichelberger-v-sidney-lactapp-2000.