Liberty Corporate Capital Ltd. v. Club Exclusive, Inc.

262 F. Supp. 3d 1288
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Alabama
DecidedJune 26, 2017
DocketCase No.: 1:16-CV-0791-VEH
StatusPublished

This text of 262 F. Supp. 3d 1288 (Liberty Corporate Capital Ltd. v. Club Exclusive, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Liberty Corporate Capital Ltd. v. Club Exclusive, Inc., 262 F. Supp. 3d 1288 (N.D. Ala. 2017).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

VIRGINIA EMERSON HOPKINS, United States District Judge

I. Procedural Background

Plaintiff/Counterclaim Defendant Liberty Corporate Capital Limited (“Liberty”) [1290]*1290initiated this insurance action against Defendant/Counterclaim Plaintiff Club Exclusive, Inc. (“Club Exclusive”) on May 13,. 2016, seeking a declaratory judgment of its rights and obligations under a commercial insurance policy (the “Policy”) issued to Club- Exclusive. (Doc, 1). Club Exclusive answered Liberty’s complaint and filed its counterclaims against Liberty on June 22, 2016. (Doc. 12).1

On October 17, 2016, Liberty filed a Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 36) (the “Motion”) as to all remaining claims and counterclaims. Club Exclusive has not responded to the Motion, and the 21-day deadline to do so under Appendix II of the court’s Uniform Initial Order (Doc. 2 at 14) has expired. Thus, the Motion is now ripe for disposition and, for those reasons explained below, is due to be granted.2

II. Standards

A. Summary Judgment

Summary judgment is proper only when there is no. genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. FED. R. CIV. P. 66(c). All reasonable doubts about the facts and all justifiable inferences are resolved in favor of the non-movant. See Fitzpatrick v. City of Atlanta, 2 F.3d 1112, 1116 (11th Cir. 1993) (instructing that “district court should resolve all reasonable doubts about the facts in favor of the non-movant, and draw all justifiable inferences in his [or its] favor” (internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting United States v. Four Parcels of Real Property, 941 F.2d 1428, 1438 (11th Cir. 1991) (en banc))). A dispute is genuine “if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmov-ing party.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). When, such as here, the moving party is the plaintiff, satisfying this initial Rule 66 burden means uaffirmatively ... supporting] its motion with credible evidence.... [and] show[ing] that, on all the essential elements of . its case on which it bears the burden of proof at trial, no reasonable jury could find for, the non-moving party.” Fitzpatrick, 2 F.3d at 1116 (citations and internal. quotation marks omitted) (emphasis in original) (quoting Four Parcels, 941 F.2d at 1438), Only “[o]nce the moving party has properly supported its motion for summary judgment, [does] the burden shift[ ] to the nonmoving party to ‘come forward with specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.’” International Stamp Art, Inc. v. U.S. Postal Serv., 456 F.3d 1270, 1274 (11th Cir. 2006) (quoting Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 476 U.S. 574, 586-87, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 638 (1986)).

B. Failure of Club Exclusive To Oppose Liberty’s Motion

Rule 66(e) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides: . í

[1291]*1291Failing to Properly Support or Address a Fact. If a party fails to properly support an assertion of fact or- fails to properly address another party’s assertion of fact as required by Rule 56(c), the court may:
(1) give an opportunity to properly support or address the fact;
(2) consider the fact undisputed for purposes of the motion;
(3) grant summary judgment if the motion and supporting materials — including the facts considered undisputed — show that the movant is entitled to it; or
(4) issue any other appropriate order.

Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(e). Regardless of these available options in the event of a non-movant’s failure to oppose, “[t]he movant ... continues to shoulder the initial burden of production in demonstrating the absence of any genuine issue of material fact, and the court must satisfy itself that the burden has been satisfactorily discharged.” Reese v. Herbert, 527 F.3d 1253, 1268 (11th Cir. 2008) (emphasis added).

As this court has previously stated when the non-movant offers no opposition to a summary judgment motion:

Thus, although a court may not a grant a motion for summary judgment simply because the motion goes unopposed, it may do so if the moving party has shown that there are no disputed issues of material fact, and that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See, e.g., Vermont Teddy Bear Co. v. 1-800 Beargram Co., 373 F.3d 241, 246 (2d Cir. 2004) (“Although the failure to respond may allow the district court to accept the movant’s factual assertions as true ..., the moving party must still establish that the undisputed facts entitle him to a judgment as a matter of law.”); see also Custer v. Pan American Life Ins. Co., 12 F.3d 410, 416 (4th Cir. 1993) (“Thus, the court, in considering a motion for summary, judgment, must review the motion, even if unopposed, and determine from what it has before it whether the .moving party is entitled to summary judgment as a matter., of law.”); see also Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(e).

Griffin v. U.S. Postal Serví, No. 1:06-CV-0124-VEH (Doc. 29 at 3) (N.D. Ala. Nov. 7, 2008); see also United States v. One Piece of Real Property, 363 F.3d 1099 (11th Cir. 2004) (“[T]he district court cannot base the entry of summary judgment on the mere fact that the motion was unopposed, but, rather, must consider the merits of the. motion.” (emphasis added) (citing Dunlap v. Transamerica Occidental Life Ins. Co., 858 F.2d 629, 632 (11th Cir. 1988) (per curiam))); One Piece, 363 F.3d at 1099 (“The district court need not sua sponte review all of the evidentiary materials on file at the time the motion is. granted, but,must ensure that the-motion itself is supported by evidentiary materials.”) (emphasis added); Alsina-Ortiz v. Laboy, 400 F.3d 77, 81 (1st Cir. 2005) (noting that, faced with a record without any opposing facts from non-movant, district court has discretion to “accept the moving party’s allegedly uncontested facts as true, but whether or .not this justifies summary judgment for the moving party depends upon the legal and factual configuration that results”) (emphasis added) (Laboy cited with approval by Eleventh Circuit in Reese,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
262 F. Supp. 3d 1288, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/liberty-corporate-capital-ltd-v-club-exclusive-inc-alnd-2017.