Gauthier v. Harmony Construction, LLC

128 So. 3d 314, 13 La.App. 5 Cir. 269, 2013 WL 5552970, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 2038
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 9, 2013
DocketNo. 13-CA-269
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 128 So. 3d 314 (Gauthier v. Harmony Construction, LLC) 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
Gauthier v. Harmony Construction, LLC, 128 So. 3d 314, 13 La.App. 5 Cir. 269, 2013 WL 5552970, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 2038 (La. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

FREDERICKA HOMBERG WICKER, Judge.

^Defendants, Harmony Construction, LLC (“Harmony”) and Jason Kunstler (“Mr. Kunstler”) appeal the trial court’s grant of summary judgment against them. In their first assignment of error, defendants argue the trial court erred in failing to grant their motion to revoke Mr. Kun-stler’s admissions deemed admitted and then rendering summary judgment thereon. In their second assignment, defendants argue the trial court erred by failing to find that a genuine issue of material fact precluded summary judgment, and in rendering judgment in favor ABG Properties, LLC (“ABG”). For the following reasons, we affirm in part and reverse in part the trial court’s judgment, and remand this matter to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On June 29, 2010, plaintiffs, Anne Gau-thier, Cherie Gauthier, and Kevin Lirette, filed suit against defendants, seeking damages.1 Plaintiffs complained that they had contracted with defendants for work on their home at 1108 Falcon Road in Metair-ie, and that defendants had failed to properly complete that work.

IsPlaintiffs further complained they suffered damages resulting from this improper work, from the defendants’ failure to pay subcontractors, and from defendants’ misrepresentation that Harmony was a licensed residential contractor.

[316]*316On September 27, 2010, plaintiffs propounded to defendants interrogatories, requests for production of documents, and requests for admission. On October 12, 2010, defendants’ counsel responded to the requests for admissions on behalf of Harmony, but did not respond to the discovery requests propounded to Mr. Kunstler. More than fifteen days passed without a response from Mr. Kunstler.

Thereafter, pursuant to Rule 10.1 of the Rules for Louisiana District Courts, the parties’ attorneys scheduled a discovery conference. This Rule 10.1 conference occurred on October 20, 2010. At this conference, the parties’ attorneys agreed to a two-week extension of time within which to provide discovery. Mr. Kunstler did not respond within this extended period.

On November 9, 2010, plaintiffs filed a motion to compel discovery, seeking answers to their requests for admissions. On January 14, 2011, the trial court held a hearing on this motion, granted it, and thereafter entered the parties’ consent judgment. In that judgment, the trial court ordered defendants to respond to the outstanding discovery requests no later than January 31, 2011.”2

Mr. Kunstler did not respond to the requests for admissions by the trial court’s January 31, 2011 deadline.3 On February 10, 2011, the plaintiffs filed a motion to compel, for contempt, and for sanctions against defendants. In this motion, plaintiffs moved to compel defendants to respond to their discovery | requests. Plaintiffs also sought a contempt judgment and sanctions against defendants, for their failure to abide by the trial court’s January 14, 2011 judgment. Plaintiffs prayed for the trial court to enter a default judgment against defendants and assess defendants to pay all reasonable expenses, including attorney’s fees and court costs.

On April 25, 2011, Mr. Kunstler answered plaintiffs’ requests for admissions. This answer was given seven months after these requests for admissions were served on him and four days before the hearing on the plaintiffs’ motion for sanctions.

On April 29, 2011, the trial court heard plaintiffs’ motion for sanctions and thereafter granted it. As a sanction for defendants’ failure to comply with discovery deadlines, the trial court deemed admitted the requests for admissions propounded to Mr. Kunstler. The trial court confirmed this order in a written judgment on May 18, 2011.

On June 10, 2011, plaintiffs moved for leave of court to file a second amended petition. Attached to this motion was a copy of their proposed petition. The trial court granted this motion on June 15, 2011, and the plaintiffs filed their second amended petition on June 20, 2011. This amended petition added ABG as a plaintiff.

Thereafter, Mr. Kunstler filed a motion to revoke deemed admissions, seeking to have the trial court reverse its May 13, 2011 order deeming admitted plaintiffs’ re[317]*317quests for admissions to Mr. Kunstler. The trial court heard this motion on August 26, 2011 and denied it. The trial court confirmed this ruling by a written judgment it issued on September 13, 2011.4

|fiOn January 25, 2012, plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment against defendants. In support of this motion, plaintiffs filed a statement of uncontested material facts and essential legal elements, a memorandum in support, and a reply memorandum in support. In those memo-randa, plaintiffs argued that Harmony was liable for breach of its obligations owed pursuant to its contracts because it failed to properly complete the renovations to the property and because plaintiffs were forced to pay unexpected amounts to subcontractors over and beyond the amount included in the contracts because Harmony failed to pay its subcontractors. Plaintiffs also argued that Mr. Kunstler misrepresented that Harmony was both a commercial and residential contractor.

On April 27, 2012, the trial court held a hearing on the motion for summary judgment and admitted evidence into the record. On June 21, 2012, the trial court issued its judgment granting plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment. In it, the court stated that the defendants failed to set forth any evidence to contradict plaintiffs motion, but rather relied only on conclusory allegations.

Plaintiffs later filed an unopposed motion to amend the trial court’s June 21, 2012 judgment. This motion sought an amended judgment to specify the amount of plaintiffs’ damages and to exclude a party which had inadvertently been added to the judgment.5 After a hearing on this motion on September 28, 2012, the trial court granted plaintiffs’ motion to amend the judgment. The trial court rendered its amended judgment on October 29, 2012. From this judgment, defendants now appeal.

\ «DISCUSSION

In this appeal, defendants assign two errors. First, defendants argue the trial court erred in not granting their motion to revoke admissions deemed admitted and then rendering summary judgment thereon. Second, defendants argue that the trial court committed legal error in failing to find a genuine issue of material fact and rendering summary judgment in favor of ABG. Defendants contend that the summary judgment in favor of ABG is improper because it is not a party to the litigation.

Assignment One

With regard to defendants’ first assignment of error, we find that both the Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure and the court’s inherent authority to sanction litigants permitted the trial court to deny Mr. Kunstler’s motion to revoke his admissions deemed admitted.6

[318]*318First, the Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure allows a party to serve upon any other party a written request for the admission of the truth of any relevant matters of fact. La. C.C.P. art. 1466.

Failure of the party to whom the request is directed to answer or object to the request within fifteen days of service conclusively establishes that fact. La. C.C.P. arts.

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Bluebook (online)
128 So. 3d 314, 13 La.App. 5 Cir. 269, 2013 WL 5552970, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 2038, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gauthier-v-harmony-construction-llc-lactapp-2013.