Hesse v. Champ Service Line

732 So. 2d 707, 98 La.App. 3 Cir. 1627, 1999 La. App. LEXIS 865, 1999 WL 182454
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 31, 1999
DocketNo. W98-1627
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 732 So. 2d 707 (Hesse v. Champ Service Line) 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
Hesse v. Champ Service Line, 732 So. 2d 707, 98 La.App. 3 Cir. 1627, 1999 La. App. LEXIS 865, 1999 WL 182454 (La. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

I,YELVERTON, J.

Defendant-relator, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, sought supervisory writs from a district court judgment which denied its motion for summary judgment as to the third-party demand of Investors-Ryan, a Louisiana Partnership. We called this case up for briefing, oral argument, and a full opinion.

| ¡.Plaintiff, Carl Hesse, received an electrical shock while working within the course and scope of his employment with Goodyear on August 18, 1990. The work was being performed on the premises leased by Goodyear from Investors-Ryan. Investors-Ryan was not the original lessor to Goodyear. However, it was the lessor at the time of the incident giving rise to this litigation.

The Hesses sued Investors-Ryan based on premises liability. Investors-Ryan filed a third-party demand against Goodyear for indemnification based upon the contract of lease which contained a purported indemnification clause. The Hess-es then filed a claim directly against Goodyear based on this same contractual language. Investors-Ryan attempted to obtain summary judgment on its indemnification claim against Goodyear, but the motion was denied by the trial court. Goodyear successfully obtained summary judgment in the trial court as to the Hesses’ claims. This court affirmed that decision in Hesse v. Champ Service Line, 97-1090 (La.App. 3 Cir. 2/4/98); 707 So.2d 1295.

After this decision was handed down, Goodyear filed a motion for summary judgment on the third-party demand which the trial court denied. Goodyear then filed the instant writ application asking us to reverse the denial of its motion for summary judgment. Since the denial of a motion for summary judgment is an interlocutory ruling from which no appeal may be taken, the only practical remedy available to avoid a possible useless trial on the merits is to request that the appellate court exercise its supervisory jurisdiction to review the propriety of the ruling. Louviere v. Byers, 526 So.2d 1253 (La.App. 3 Cir.), writ denied, 528 So.2d 153 (La.1988). We are reviewing the propriety of the ruling now.

I,.¡PREVIOUS RULING OF THIS COURT

Goodyear’s primary argument is that this court has already ruled that the lease agreement between Goodyear and Investors-Ryan does not contain language that transfers liability from Investors-Ryan to Goodyear. Specifically, Goodyear claims that in order for Investors-Ryan to be entitled to indemnity from Goodyear, the subject indemnity clause would have to [709]*709contain express language, in unequivocal terms, stating that Goodyear agreed to indemnify Investors-Ryan against losses resulting to it through its own negligence.

In Hesse, 707 So.2d 1295, this court held that workers’ compensation benefits were the Hesses’ exclusive remedy against Goodyear arising out of his injuries on the work premises leased by Goodyear. This was despite the Hesses’ claim that he was suing Goodyear for negligence under the dual capacity doctrine for Goodyear’s responsibility for maintaining the building under the terms of the lease, because the dual capacity doctrine had been statutorily abrogated. The dual capacity language was added to La.R.S. 23:1032 by Acts 1989, No. 454, § 2, and became effective January 1, 1990, before the date of this accident.

After ruling that the Hesses’ exclusive remedy against Goodyear was under the Workers’ Compensation Law, this court then proceeded to discuss Goodyear’s argument that it did not assume liability under the lease. Recognizing that La.R.S. 9:3221 authorized Investors-Ryan to transfer liability for the condition of the premises, this court stated that there was no provision in the lease that provided that Goodyear assumed responsibility for the condition of the leased premises and specifically held that the lease provision at issue “was not sufficient to transfer | pliability to Goodyear.” Hesse, 707 So.2d at 1298. It is this part of the opinion upon which Goodyear relies for its argument that it is entitled to summary judgment dismissing Investors-Ryan’s claims against it.

Investors-Ryan argues that the question of whether or not Goodyear assumed Investors-Ryan’s liability under the terms of the lease agreement was not before this court for decision on that appeal and was not germane to the only issue that was before the court: Goodyear’s statutory immunity. Investors-Ryan argues that it was not involved in the appeal and was denied its request to be heard at oral arguments and that, following the rendition of the appeal, its application for rehearing was denied. It claims that these actions denied it the opportunity for a favorable resolution at trial on the merits.

Basically, by relying on this court’s earlier decision, Goodyear is asserting a “law of the case” argument. “The ‘law of the case’ is a policy by which an appellate court will not, on a subsequent appeal, reconsider its earlier ruling in the same case.” Burns v. Sabine River Authority, 614 So.2d 1337, 1339 (La.App. 3 Cir.), writ denied, 617 So.2d 935 (La.1993). “That policy applies against those who were parties to the case when the prior decision was rendered and who had their day in court.” Id. However, since Investors-Ryan was not a party to the appeal in this court, the law of the case doctrine would not bind it. This is because an appellate court cannot render a judgment against a person who was not a party to the appeal. Sutton v. Montegut, 544 So.2d 1181 (La.App. 5 Cir.1989). Insofar as it concerns Investors-Ryan, the opinion on the transfer of liability to Goodyear in the appeal to this court was simply an advisory opinion. Clearly, Investors-Ryan was not a party to the | .¡summary judgment rendered in favor of Goodyear on the claims of the Hesses. Investors-Ryan’s third-party demand against Goodyear was still at issue. Therefore, we will address the merits of the trial court’s denial of Goodyear’s motion for summary judgment on Investors-Ryan’s third-party demand.

SUMMARY JUDGMENT

Pursuant to La.Code Civ.P. art. 966, a trial court may grant a motion for summary judgment if the pleadings and supporting documents such as depositions, affidavits, and answers to interrogatories, demonstrate that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the mover is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

If these documents are properly filed, the court must analyze them to determine [710]*710whether they are sufficient to warrant the motion from either an evidentiary or substantive legal standpoint. Dugas v. Guillory, 97-398 (La.App. 3 Cir. 10/7/98); 719 So.2d 719. “If they are not sufficient on either the evidentiary or legal ground, the motion for summary judgment must be denied.” Id. at 722. “In order to meet the sufficiency threshold, the mover must satisfy the court that no genuine issue of material fact exists.” Id. “Because it is the applicable substantive law that determines materiality, whether or not a particular fact in dispute is material can be seen only in light of the substantive law applicable to the case.” Id.

At the hearing on the motion for summary judgment, the trial court found that the issue of fault was a genuine issue and found that the entirety of the contract, including the indemnity language versus the language about anything not covered by insurance, conflicted. The court further stated that if the clauses did not | Rconflict then they were ambiguous, and any ambiguity had to be construed against Goodyear as the drafter.

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Bluebook (online)
732 So. 2d 707, 98 La.App. 3 Cir. 1627, 1999 La. App. LEXIS 865, 1999 WL 182454, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hesse-v-champ-service-line-lactapp-1999.