Reynolds v. Bordelon

172 So. 3d 607, 2015 La. LEXIS 1487, 2015 WL 3972393
Supreme Court of Louisiana·Decided June 30, 2015·No. No. 2014-C-2371·Published·Cited by 77 cases

Opinions

CLARK, J.

b The instant case presents a claim under the Louisiana Products Liability Act (“LPLA”). We granted its companion case to determine the viability of negligent spoliation of evidence as a cause of action in Louisiana.1 We now address the underlying products liability case and review the appropriateness of the lower' court’s grant of summary judgment. For the reasons expressed below, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On March 15, 2008, a multi-vehicle accident occurred in St. Tammany |2Parish. [610]*610Robert J. Bordelon, III is alleged to have caused the accident when he swerved two separate times from the left lane of traffic to the right lane, colliding with two vehicles. The second collision involved the instant plaintiff, Richard Reynolds, who was driving a 2008 Infiniti G35S, which was manufactured by Nissan North America (“Nissan”). After the initial impact, the plaintiff was pushed into another vehicle and came to rest in a ditch. The accident caused the plaintiff to sustain serious injuries.

On March 12, 2009, the plaintiff filed suit against Bordelon and other defendants. With regard to Nissan, the plaintiff asserted claims under the LPLA for the failure of the air bags to deploy and/or operate. Specifically, he alleged the Infin-iti was defective (1) due to a construction or composition defect; (2) due to a design defect; (3) for failure to contain an adequate warning; and (4) for failure to conform to an express warranty.

On July 8, 2013, Nissan filed a motion for summary judgment. In opposition, the plaintiff filed the affidavit of Dr. Richard Baratta. Ultimately, the trial court made several evidentiary rulings and concluded that there was an absence' of factual support for any of the product liability theories, and it granted summary judgment in favor of Nissan. The court of appeal affirmed the judgment, finding no error in the evidentiary rulings and that there were no genuine issues of material fact upon which to survive summary judgment.2 We granted the plaintiffs writ application to review the grant of summary judgment.3

APPLICABLE LAW

A motion for summary judgment is a procedural device used when there is no genuine issue of material fact for all or part of the relief prayed for by a [ Jitigant.*4 A summary judgment is reviewed on appeal de novo, with the appellate court using the same criteria that govern the trial court’s determination of whether summary judgment is appropriate; ie. whether there is any genuine issue of material fact, and whether the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.5

A motion for summary judgment will be granted “if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to material fact, and that mover is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”6 The burden of proof remains with the mov-ant. However, if the movant will not bear the burden of proof at trial on the matter that is before the court on the motion for summary judgment, the movant’s burden on the motion does not require him to negate all essential elements of the adverse party’s claim, action, or defense, but rather to point out to the court that there is an absence of factual support for one or more elements essential to the adverse party’s claim, action, or defense. Thereafter, if the adverse party fails to produce factual support sufficient to establish that he will be able to satisfy his evidentiary [611]*611burden of proof at trial, there is no genuine issue of material fact.7

This court explained the summary judgment procedure as follows:

[The summary judgment procedure] first places the burden of producing evidence at the hearing on the motion for summary judgment on the mover (normally the defendant), who can ordinarily meet that burden by submitting affidavits or by pointing out the lack of factual support for an essential element in the opponent’s case. At that point, the party who bears the burden of persuasion at trial (usually the plaintiff) must come forth with evidence (affidavits or discovery responses) which demonstrates he or she will be able to |4meet the burden at trial_ Once the motion for summary judgment has been properly supported by the moving party, the failure of the non-moving party to produce evidence of a material factual dispute mandates the granting of the motion. (Emphasis added; citation omitted).8

DISCUSSION

Evidentiary Rulings

The plaintiff avers that the trial court improperly excluded evidence in its consideration of the motion for summary judgment. We will address each category of evidence that the lower courts ruled inadmissible.

First, the plaintiff attempted to admit post-accident photographs of the vehicle. However, the photographs were not verified or authenticated in any way. The plaintiff did not introduce an affidavit or testimony by any person familiar with the photographs, the photographer or otherwise, in order to lay the foundation that the photographs were actually depictions of the plaintiffs vehicle or that the depictions were accurate.9 Accordingly, we agree that the lack of verification deems the photographs inadmissible at the summary judgment hearing.

Next, the plaintiff argues the airbag service bulletin printed from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) should have been admissible. However, no corroborating testimony or affidavit was presented to establish the printout’s authenticity. As noted by the court of appeal, the front page of the printout states that public documents were unavailable at the time the printout was produced; thus, the plaintiff cannot avail himself of any self-authenticating public document exception to survive this hurdle of admissibility.10 Accordingly, we find no error in the evidentiary ruling that excluded the NHTSA service bulletin.

| ^Further, the plaintiff sought to admit other incident investigation reports created by Nissan, presumably in an effort to illustrate that Nissan knew of an ongoing problem of its vehicles’ airbags failing to deploy and failed to warn consumers. However, as articulated by the court of appeal, the plaintiff failed to establish the reports’ relevancy to this proceeding. The reports do not reference the plaintiffs accident, nor do they demonstrate any similarities to the plaintiffs specific vehicle or the instant circumstances surrounding the alleged failure of the airbags to deploy. Rather, the investigation reports pertain to varying makes and models of vehicles in varying years in varying locales. Thus, we [612]*612find the reports are not relevant evidence as they do not have a tendency to make the existence of a material fact more probable or less probable than such a determination would be without the evidence.11

The plaintiff also attempted to introduce pre-accident invoices for service performed on his vehicle by the car dealership that sold him his vehicle, Ray Brandt Infiniti.

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Reynolds v. Bordelon, 172 So. 3d 607, 2015 La. LEXIS 1487, 2015 WL 3972393 (La. 2015).

172 So. 3d 607 (Reynolds v. Bordelon) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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