Hubbard v. Shankle

138 S.W.3d 474, 2004 Tex. App. LEXIS 4568, 2004 WL 1119578
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 20, 2004
Docket2-03-192-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by147 cases

This text of 138 S.W.3d 474 (Hubbard v. Shankle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hubbard v. Shankle, 138 S.W.3d 474, 2004 Tex. App. LEXIS 4568, 2004 WL 1119578 (Tex. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

TERRIE LIVINGSTON, Justice.

Appellant, Lainee Jeanelle Hubbard, as administrator of her father’s estate, appeals the trial court’s order granting two *479 no-evidence motions for summary judgment in favor of appellee, Suzie Shankle. In her sole issue, appellant complains that the trial court erred by granting appellee’s first and second motions for summary judgment, by rendering judgment that appellant take nothing, and by overruling appellant’s motion for new trial. We affirm.

FACTS

Appellant, as administrator of Craig Curtright’s estate, sued appellee to recover or impress a trust on life insurance proceeds paid to appellee upon the death of Craig Curtright. Curtright and appellee had been dating approximately three months when Curtright died of a heart attack during sexual intercourse with ap-pellee on September 2, 2001.

The couple met via the internet in May 2001. Prior to his death, Curtright told appellee that he intended to remove his ex-wife as beneficiary on his life insurance policy and change the designation to reflect that appellee was the new beneficiary. He asked appellee for her social security number for this purpose. He told her that he was putting the life insurance in her name because he wanted her to have the money and he wanted her to take care of the college expenses of Caty, his two-year-old daughter.

When Curtright died, appellee, as beneficiary, received approximately $110,000 to $120,000 from the insurance policy. She deposited all of the money in her checking account and had spent approximately $45,000 dollars of it on personal expenses at the time of trial. Although she admits that at least some of the money is intended for Caty’s college expenses, she asserts that she does not have a legal obligation to give the money to anyone.

Appellant sued appellee first on behalf of the estate, and then later amended her petition to include claims on Caty’s behalf under an assignment of claims. Appellee filed two motions for no-evidence summary judgments. The first motion attempted to defeat any claims the estate had asserted against her in appellant’s first amended original petition. Appellee’s second motion, which was filed after appellant’s second amended original petition, addressed claims appellant raised on Caty’s behalf. Appellant filed a response to appellee’s motion against the estate, and in support of her response she attached appellee’s deposition testimony; emails between ap-pellee and the decedent; the police report on the decedent’s death; her own affidavit attesting to the fact that her father was very overweight and had a heart condition; the decedent’s death certificate; excerpts from a physician assistant’s drug reference handbook, a medical dictionary, and a physician’s desk reference; and internet research on various prescription drugs.

The trial court granted appellee’s motion against the estate, stating in its findings that there were no facts or evidence presented by appellant upon which to base allegations of negligence, wrongful death, breach of contract, promissory estoppel, formation of an express trust, formation of a constructive trust, removal of property, money had and received, undue influence, statutory forfeiture of insurance proceeds, misapplication of trust property, damages, or fraud. The trial court found that the decedent, through his own voluntary efforts, had named appellee as the sole and absolute beneficiary of his life insurance policy. The trial court also found that had appellant desired to do so, he could have created a trust or a will with trust provisions that named his estate or trustee as the beneficiary. Moreover, the court noted that although appellee may have a moral obligation to use the proceeds for Caty’s *480 college education, it is not the equivalent of a legal one.

After the trial court granted appellee’s first motion against the estate, appellant then filed a second amended original petition adding the claims on Caty’s behalf. In response to these claims, appellee filed a second motion for a no-evidence summary judgment. In appellant’s response to this motion, she incorporated by reference her last response and all attachments, the appellee’s two motions for summary judgment, the court’s file, and appellant’s affidavit and all exhibits attached to it. The trial court then granted this motion concerning Caty’s claims and concluded that appellant failed to present more than a scintilla of evidence sufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

Under rule of civil procedure 166a(i), after an adequate time for discovery, the party without the burden of proof may, without presenting evidence, move for summary judgment on the ground that there is no evidence to support an essential element of the nonmovant’s claim or defense. Tex.R. Civ. P. 166a(i). The motion must specifically state the elements for which there is no evidence. Id.; Johnson v. Brewer & Pritchard, P.C., 73 S.W.3d 193, 207 (Tex.2002). The trial court must grant the motion unless the nonmovant produces summary judgment evidence that raises a genuine issue of material fact. See Tex.R. Civ. P. 166a(i) & cmt.; Southwestern Elec. Power Co. v. Grant, 73 S.W.3d 211, 215 (Tex.2002).

“A no-evidence summary judgment is essentially a pretrial directed verdict,” and we apply the same legal sufficiency standard in reviewing a no-evidence summary judgment as we apply in reviewing a directed verdict. Hon. David Hitt-ner & Lynne Liberato, No-Evidence Summary Judgments Under the New Rule, State Bae of Tex. Peof. Dev. Peog., Peactic-ING UNDER THE NEW APPELLATE RULES COURSE K (1997). We review the evidence in the light most favorable to the respondent against whom the no-evidence summary judgment was rendered, disregarding all contrary evidence and inferences. Morgan v. Anthony, 27 S.W.3d 928, 929 (Tex.2000); Merrell Dow Pharm., Inc. v. Hamer, 953 S.W.2d 706, 711 (Tex.1997); Connell v. Connell, 889 S.W.2d 534, 538 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 1994, writ denied). A no-evidence summary judgment is improperly granted if the respondent brings forth more than a scintilla of probative evidence to raise a genuine issue of material fact. Tex.R. Civ. P. 166a(i); see also Moore v. K Mart Corp., 981 S.W.2d 266, 269 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 1998, pet. denied); Merrell Dow Pharm., Inc., 953 S.W.2d at 711. Less than a scintilla of evidence exists when the evidence is “so weak as to do no more than create a mere surmise or suspicion” of a fact. Kindred v. Con/Chem, Inc., 650 S.W.2d 61, 63 (Tex.1983). More than a scintilla of evidence exists when the evidence “rises to a level that would enable reasonable and fair-minded people to differ in their conclusions.” Merrell Dow Pharm., Inc., 953 S.W.2d at 711.

DISCUSSION

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
138 S.W.3d 474, 2004 Tex. App. LEXIS 4568, 2004 WL 1119578, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hubbard-v-shankle-texapp-2004.