First National Bank & Trust Co. v. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc.

22 F. App'x 546
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedNovember 19, 2001
DocketNo. 00-5324
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 22 F. App'x 546 (First National Bank & Trust Co. v. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
First National Bank & Trust Co. v. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc., 22 F. App'x 546 (6th Cir. 2001).

Opinion

WILLIAMS, Senior District Judge.

The appellants, First National Bank & Trust Company and others, appeal the district court’s entry of summary judgment in favor of the appellee, Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment.

I. BACKGROUND

First National Bank & Trust Co. of Car-bondale, Illinois, Trustee of the Jones Family Trusts, and Glenn Jones, Trustee of the Fula Kathleen Jones Trust, (“the Jones Trusts”), and Martin Marietta Materials, Inc., (“Martin Marietta”), are successors in interest to a lease permitting Martin Marietta to operate the Three Rivers Quarry on property owned by the Jones Trusts in Livingston County, Kentucky. This lease was originally entered into in 1962 and has been amended on a number of occasions. (The lease agreement and all amendments will be collectively referred to as the “Lease.”) The Lease grants Martin Marietta the right to mine limestone from the property in exchange for payments to the Jones Trusts. The Lease grants Martin Marietta the right “to quarry, take, mine and remove ... and to market the limestone.... ” The Lease also grants Martin Marietta “the right to use the surface of said Leased Lands in any way that it shall find necessary, expedient or convenient in the quarrying, mining, removing and preparing said limestone for market, and the transportation of same over and across” the leased property. The Lease also states: “Lessor shall have the full right to use any portion of the Leased Lands for any purposes other than those for which this and the Original Lease are made, so long as such use by Lessor, or its assigns, shall not interfere with or be inconsistent with the uses by Lessee hereunder.” The Lease provides that, if the lessee should default under the Lease and this default is not cured within 30 days following notice of default, then all of the lessee’s rights under the Lease shall terminate. The Lease also states: “Failure of Lessor to exercise the option [of termination upon default] herein given it or any right hereunder at any time or times shall not preclude Lessor from the exercise thereof at any subsequent time or times for any subsequent default.”

[548]*548The quarry operations necessarily remove vast quantities of earth, waste rock and other materials, which are referred to as “overburden.” In the past, the quarry operators have disposed of the overburden by placing it on fault lines, placing it above the 400-foot contour line on the leased property or placing it on property not owned by the Jones Trusts. The quarry operators also have, on occasion, given away dirt to local truckers and Livingston County.

In 1997, Martin Marietta entered into a sales agreement with a contractor to provide the limestone for a nearby bridge construction project. Martin Marietta also agreed to provide fill dirt to the contractor, if the contractor would remove the dirt. In early November 1997, one of the bridge project’s subcontractors removed approximately 2,000 cubic yards of earth from the leased land. There is no dispute that representatives of the Jones Trusts knew of the earth removal at the time that it occurred. There also is no dispute that this earth was removed from an area which would eventually be mined, requiring its removal. The Jones Trusts accepted Martin Marietta’s November and December 1997 lease payments after this earth removal occurred.

On January 16, 1998, the Jones Trusts notified Martin Marietta that it was in default of the Lease because of the earth removal. On February 10, 1998, Martin Marietta responded that it disagreed that any default had occurred based on the earth removal. On February 16, 1998, the Jones Trusts notified Martin Marietta that the trusts were exercising their right to terminate the Lease. Nonetheless, Martin Marietta continued to occupy and operate the quarry. Martin Marietta also continued to make lease payments, and the Jones Trusts continued to accept those payments, through July 1998.

On October 27, 1998, the Jones Trusts filed this case seeking a declaration from the district court that the Lease was properly terminated. The district court found that Martin Marietta had breached the Lease by marketing soil from the lease property. The court, however, concluded that the Jones Trusts had waived their right to forfeiture of the Lease by continuing to accept lease payments after this breach, and the court entered summary judgment for Martin Marietta.

II. ANALYSIS

This court reviews grants of summary judgment de novo, under the same standard as the district court. See Owens Corning v. National Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 257 F.3d 484, 490-91 (6th Cir.2001). Summary judgment is appropriate when “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 any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(c); See, e.g., Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 250, 106 S. Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586-87,106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). In reviewing a summary judgment, this court reviews the factual evidence and draws all reasonable inferences in favor of the non-moving party. See Anderson, 477 U.S. at 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505; Matsushita, 475 U.S. at 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348; B.F. Goodrich Co. v. United States Filter Corp., 245 F.3d 587, 591-92 (6th Cir.2001). To prevail, the nonmovant must show sufficient evidence to create a genuine issue of material fact. A mere “scintilla of evidence” will not suffice [549]*549for the non-movant to overturn the summary judgment, but instead, the non-mov-ant must show evidence “on which the jury could reasonably find for the non-movant.” Anderson, 477 U.S. at 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505.

The parties in this case concede that, since jurisdiction in this case is based on diversity, Kentucky law controls the substantive question at issue. See, e.g., Davis v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 873 F.2d 888, 892 (6th Cir.1989) (citing Erie R.R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 73, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188 (1938)). The district court held that Kentucky law prevents a lessor from terminating a lease for breach of the lease when it has accepted lease payments from the lessee subsequent to and with knowledge of the breach. The district court also held that when Martin Marietta marketed soil from the leased premises it had breached the Lease, which reserved to the Jones Trusts all uses of the land other than the marketing and removal of limestone.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

William Clift v. RDP Company
702 F. App'x 385 (Sixth Circuit, 2017)
Clift v. RDP Co.
200 F. Supp. 3d 660 (W.D. Kentucky, 2016)
Anderson v. Old National Bancorp
675 F. Supp. 2d 701 (W.D. Kentucky, 2009)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
22 F. App'x 546, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-national-bank-trust-co-v-martin-marietta-materials-inc-ca6-2001.