Porro v. CENTURY III ASSOCIATES

846 A.2d 1282, 2004 Pa. Super. 105, 2004 Pa. Super. LEXIS 345
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 6, 2004
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 846 A.2d 1282 (Porro v. CENTURY III ASSOCIATES) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Porro v. CENTURY III ASSOCIATES, 846 A.2d 1282, 2004 Pa. Super. 105, 2004 Pa. Super. LEXIS 345 (Pa. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

OPINION BY BENDER, J.:

¶ 1 This is an appeal filed by James M. Porro (Appellant) from an order which granted Appellees’ motion for summary judgment and dismissed Appellant’s complaint with prejudice. We affirm.

¶ 2 The case arises from Appellant’s fall on a staircase located on Appellees’ property known as Century III Mall. Appellant claims that a slippery substance had accumulated on the staircase which caused him to slip and fall and sustain injuries.

¶3 The fall in question occurred on March 26, 1998. Appellant filed an amended complaint against the Appellees on March 24, 2000. Appellant’s deposition was taken on April 16, 2001. In his deposition, Appellant stated the substance which caused his fall was a liquid soapy type of cleaner and that he had no idea how long the substance had been on the stairs prior to his fall.

¶ 4 On March 18, 2002, Appellees filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that the Appellant had failed to produce any evidence or testimony to establish that: (1) the allegedly dangerous condition was the result of the direct negligence of an employee of Appellees, (2) the property owner had actual notice of the dangerous condition, or (3) the condition existed for such a length of time that in the exercise of reasonable care the owner should have known of it. At oral argument before the trial court on the motion for summary judgment, Appellant requested additional time to conduct discovery with regard to the notice issue. The trial court denied Appellees’ motion for summary judgment without prejudice, giving Appellant time to conduct additional discovery and permitting Appellees to refile their motion for summary judgment in the future.

¶ 5 Nothing further occurred until Ap-pellees placed the case at issue on October 24, 2002. Then on January 17, 2003, Appellant directed written discovery to Ap-pellees to which Appellees responded. However, on March 3, 2003, Appellees refiled their motion for summary judgment. Appellant claims that Appellees filed only partial, incomplete and evasive replies to his discovery request, but Appellant filed no additional discovery requests, no notice of any depositions, or any motions to compel additional responses. Therefore, the trial court granted Appellees’ motion for summary judgment.

¶ 6 Appellant filed his appeal in this Court on May 21, 2003. On October 20, 2003, Appellant filed his brief but failed to file a reproduced record at that time. See Pa.R.A.P. 2186 (providing that “reproduced record shall be served and filed not later than: (1) the date of service of the *1284 appellant’s brief....”). On November 19, 2003, Appellees filed their brief and a supplemental reproduced record due to Appellant’s failure to file a reproduced record.

¶ 7 On January 30, 2004, because Appellant had not yet filed a reproduced record, Appellees submitted an application to quash the appeal due to Appellant’s failure to file a reproduced record. Since Appellant offered no explanation for his failure to file the reproduced record, this court quashed the appeal by order entered on February 25, 2004. Fortuitously for Appellant, he had filed his reproduced record one day prior to the entry of this Court’s order. Then on March 8, 2004, Appellant filed a motion to vacate the quashal order. The motion was deferred until oral argument. With great hesitancy, we now vacate the quashal order.

¶ 8 Appellant’s reproduced record was due October 20, 2003, the date his brief was filed, to allow all parties to cite to the reproduced record in their respective briefs. Appellees were forced to file their own reproduced record because of Appellant’s failure. At oral argument before this Court, Appellant simply stated he forgot to file the reproduced record. One would think the filing of the motion to quash by Appellees would have jogged Appellant’s memory. Nevertheless, we now vacate the quashal order and proceed to address the merits of Appellant’s appeal. We would, however, admonish Appellant for his failure to file the reproduced record until such a late date. There are reasons for our appellate rules and when the rules are so blatantly ignored, as they were in this case, appeals will be quashed.

¶ 9 When considering appeals in a case where the trial court has granted a motion for summary judgment, we are guided by the following:

As an appellate court, we are bound to consider certain principles when and under what circumstances a trial court may properly enter summary judgment. The trial court must accept as true all well-pleaded facts relevant to the issues in the non-moving part’s pleadings, and give to him the benefit of all reasonable inferences to be drawn there from. A grant of summary judgment is proper where the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, admissions of record and affidavits on file support the court’s eonclusion[,] no genuine issue of material fact exists and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. The court must ignore controverted facts contained in the pleadings and restrict its review to material filed in support of and in opposition to a motion for summary judgment and to those allegations in pleadings which are uncontro-verted. We will overturn a trial court’s entry of summary judgment only if there has been an error of law or a clear abuse of discretion.

Millard v. Osborne, 416 Pa.Super. 475, 611 A.2d 715, 717 (1992) (citations omitted).

¶ 10 Appellant first argues that:

THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN GRANTING APPELLES’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT WHERE THE APPELLEES FAILED TO COMPLY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF DISCOVERY AND DISCOVER[Y] IN THE MATTER WAS CONTINUING RENDERING THE GRANTING OF SUCH MOTION PREMATURE.

Appellant’s brief at 6.

¶ 11 In making this argument Appellant fails to recollect the procedural history of this case. On March 18, 2002, Appellees filed their first motion for summary judgment. This was four years after Appellant’s fall and two years after the lawsuit was filed. One must ask when Appellant was planning to develop his case. Even given the time since the incident, the trial *1285 court judiciously granted Appellant more time for discovery. Appellant waited until January 17, 2003 to file written discovery. In the meantime, Appellees put the case at issue. Appellant never took a deposition. Appellant never filed a motion to compel Appellees to file more specific responses to his discovery. Appellant never requested more time to conduct further discovery until Appellees filed their second motion for summary judgment. The trial court addressed this issue in its opinion, stating:

The case was placed at issue on October 24, 2002. Plaintiff did not file any interrogatories or requests for production of documents until January 17, 2003. Defendants responded on March 28, 2003. To date, plaintiff has not served any notices of deposition upon defendants.

Trial Court Opinion (T.C.O.), 8/18/03, at 2. The trial court went on to state:

Summary judgment was originally denied because plaintiff wanted more time for discovery.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
846 A.2d 1282, 2004 Pa. Super. 105, 2004 Pa. Super. LEXIS 345, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/porro-v-century-iii-associates-pasuperct-2004.