Harms v. Northland Ford Dealers

1999 SD 143, 602 N.W.2d 58, 1999 S.D. LEXIS 164
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 10, 1999
DocketNone
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 1999 SD 143 (Harms v. Northland Ford Dealers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harms v. Northland Ford Dealers, 1999 SD 143, 602 N.W.2d 58, 1999 S.D. LEXIS 164 (S.D. 1999).

Opinions

KONENKAMP, Justice.

[¶ 1.] As a promotion during a golf tournament at Moccasin Creek Country Club, Northland Ford Dealers offered a new Ford Explorer to the first golfer to hit a hole-in-one at the eighth hole. Jennifer Harms scored a hole-in-one with a shot from the amateur women’s tee box. Yet she was denied the prize. To be eligible to win, Northland revealed, all amateurs, male and female, had to tee off from the amateur men’s tee box. This requirement was not made known to the players beforehand. Northland and Moccasin Creek blamed each other for the mix-up. When she sued, the circuit court granted Harms summary judgment against both North-land and Moccasin Creek. We affirm that decision. As the contest sponsor, North-land breached its contract to award the prize in accord with the announced rules. The court also granted summary judgment to Moccasin Creek on its cross-claim against Northland. We reverse that ruling because genuine issues of material fact remain on whether Moccasin Creek breached its agreement with Northland in setting up the hole-in-one contest to Northland’s specifications.

Facts

[¶ 2.] The Dakota Tour is a series of four golf tournaments played each summer in South Dakota. Participation is open to both men and women, professional and amateur. Moccasin Creek Country Club in Aberdeen is one of the Tour hosts. In 1995, Northland Ford Dealers, an association of dealerships, offered to sponsor a “hole-in-one” contest at Moccasin Creek during the Tour. To the first golfer to “ace” a specified contest hole, Northland would award a new Ford Explorer. Moccasin Creek agreed to include the contest [60]*60as part of its tournament. Northland paid a $4,602 premium to Continental Hole-in-One, Inc. to insure the award of the contest prize. The insurance application stated in capital letters: “ALL AMATEUR MEN & WOMEN WILL UTILIZE THE SAME TEE.”

[¶ 3.] A day before the Tour reached Moccasin Creek, its head golf pro, Ted Zahn, received a telephone call from Continental. Zahn told the caller that he was concerned about the lack of information and planning surrounding the hole-in-one contest. Continental’s representative replied that there was no reason for concern because “[Continental] ran the deal.” Continental faxed Zahn instructions for the minimum yardage distances for the contest hole. The distances varied for each day, but for the third day, the one under inquiry here, the fax message stated: “Pros — Minimum of 193 Yards; Ams — Minimum of 170 Yards.” The instructions warned: “It is imperative that these yardages are correct each day to keep [Northland’s] hole-in-one coverage valid.” Zahn turned Continental’s instructions over to his staff “to set up the hole according to the fax....” Nothing in Continental’s instructions suggested that any different yardages were to be used for the women contestants. But as Moccasin Creek’s course superintendent later reflected, “I assumed it was a men’s prize and was not informed either way, that women were also competing with it....”

[¶ 4.] Continental asked Moccasin Creek to find someone to sit at the green and act as a “spotter” to verify claims of a hole-in-one. Continental paid the spotter $50 per day. The local Ford dealership hired another spotter for the same purpose. Continental supplied a banner and Moccasin Creek posted it on the course to advertise the contest. It announced that a hole-in-one would win the car, but it gave no other details. The local Ford dealership parked a Ford Explorer near the banner.

[¶ 5.] No explanation of the hole-in-one contest was given to the registered golfers in the tournament information sheet. The sheet did, however, stipulate that “USGA Rules govern all play except where modified by the Local Rules.... ” For this tournament, the rules directed: “Professionals will play from the blue tees. Male amateurs will play from the yellow tees, female amateurs will play from the red tees.” Amateur female participants were not told that to qualify for the hole-in-one contest, they would have to tee off from the amateur men’s tee box. With no gender distinction announced for the hole-in-one contest, female contestants could infer that the rules for teeing applied to the eighth hole the same as every other.

[¶ 6.] On the last day of the tournament, Jennifer Harms, an amateur golfer, “aced” the contest hole, shooting from the red, amateur women’s tee. After the distance between the red tee box and the hole was measured, however, it was decided that the required minimum distance had not been met. When Harms returned to the clubhouse on completing her round, she learned from her parents that her shot was pending disqualification. Northland later refused to award her the new vehicle.

[¶7.] Harms was a collegiate golfer at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. She returned to Concordia that fall to complete her last year of athletic eligibility. Then, in June 1996, she sued North-land and Moccasin Creek for breach of contract. Both defendants cross-claimed against the other. The circuit court granted summary judgment to Harms against Northland and Moccasin Creek, and also granted summary judgment to Moccasin Creek on its cross-claim against North-land. The court awarded Harms $25,125, with interest and costs. Northland appeals, contending that unresolved legal questions and genuine issues of material fact exist on Harms’ breach of contract claim and Moccasin Creek’s cross-claim. Moccasin Creek does not request our review of Harms’ summary judgment against it; instead, it seeks only to uphold its cross-claim against Northland.

[61]*61Standard of Review

[¶ 8.] “Under our familiar standard for reviewing summary judgments, we decide only whether genuine issues of material fact existed and whether the law was correctly applied.” Kobbeman v. Oleson, 1998 SD 20, ¶ 4, 574 N.W.2d 633, 635. We view the evidence in a light most favorable to the nonmovant and resolve reasonable doubts against the movant. Calvello v. Yankton Sioux Tribe, 1998 SD 107, ¶ 8, 584 N.W.2d 108, 111. The burden of proof rests on the movant to show clearly the absence of a genuine issue of material fact and entitlement to judgment as a matter of law. State Dep’t of Revenue v. Thiewes, 448 N.W.2d 1, 2 (S.D.1989). If no genuine issue of fact remains, and if the trial court correctly decided the legal issues, then summary judgment will be affirmed. Alverson v. Northwestern Nat’l Cas. Co., 1997 SD 9, ¶ 4, 559 N.W.2d 234, 235; Meyer v. Santema, 1997 SD 21, ¶ 8, 559 N.W.2d 251, 254. We will affirm the trial court’s decision if any legal basis exists to support it. De Smet Ins. Co. of South Dakota v. Gibson, 1996 SD 102, ¶ 5, 552 N.W.2d 98, 99; SDCL 15-6-56(c). Contract interpretation is a question of law reviewed de novo. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Vostad, 520 N.W.2d 273, 275 (S.D.1994). Existence of a legal duty is also a question of law. Poelstra v. Basin Elec. Power Coop., 1996 SD 36, ¶ 9, 545 N.W.2d 823, 825.

A.

[¶ 9.] Northland first asserts that Harms failed to meet her burden of showing the absence of a genuine issue of material fact and entitlement to judgment as a matter of law. Harms filed only a bare motion, with no supporting documents.

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Bluebook (online)
1999 SD 143, 602 N.W.2d 58, 1999 S.D. LEXIS 164, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harms-v-northland-ford-dealers-sd-1999.