Robison v. Enterprise Leasing Co.-South Central

57 So. 3d 1, 2010 Miss. App. LEXIS 385, 2010 WL 2816649
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedJuly 20, 2010
DocketNo. 2009-CA-00383-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 57 So. 3d 1 (Robison v. Enterprise Leasing Co.-South Central) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Robison v. Enterprise Leasing Co.-South Central, 57 So. 3d 1, 2010 Miss. App. LEXIS 385, 2010 WL 2816649 (Mich. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinions

MYERS, P.J., for the Court:

¶ 1. This case stems from a one-vehicle accident that occurred at approximately 11:43 p.m. on June 10, 2005. Tess Robison was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Gregory Knight. Knight was driving at a [2]*2high rate of speed when he lost control of the vehicle and allowed it to leave the highway. In the resulting accident, both Knight and Robison were thrown from the vehicle. Knight was killed, and Robison suffered severe injuries.

¶ 2. Robison and her parents, Brian and Lisa Robison, brought suit against Knight’s estate, his father, James Knight, and Enterprise Leasing Company — South Central, Inc. The Robisons alleged that they had suffered damages — Robison’s personal injuries and lost income of all three plaintiffs — as a result of Knight’s negligent operation of the vehicle. They also alleged that Knight’s father had negligently entrusted him- with the vehicle and that Enterprise had negligently rented the vehicle to James Knight, with the actual knowledge that the younger Knight would operate it. The claims against Knight’s estate and his father were subsequently resolved, and both of those defendants were dismissed from the suit.

¶ 3. Enterprise then filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure. Enterprise attached as exhibits to the motion a police report describing the accident, a car rental contract between James Knight and Enterprise, and a title to the vehicle at issue. In their response, the Robisons included an affidavit from James Knight and excerpts from his deposition testimony. None of these exhibits are found in the pleadings. Enterprise’s motion was ultimately granted, and the Robisons, aggrieved by the judgment, now appeal. The sole issue on appeal is whether the trial court erred in granting Enterprise’s motion to dismiss.

DISCUSSION

1. Nature of the Motion

¶ 4. “A motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted challenges the legal sufficiency of the complaint[ ] and raises a question of law.” Favre Prop. Mgmt. v. Cinque Bambini, 863 So.2d 1037, 1042 (¶ 14) (Miss.Ct.App.2004). However, as we have said, various exhibits and other matters outside the record were submitted by the parties to the trial court. The trial court appeared to rely on some of the facts established through this evidence outside the pleadings, and its judgment recites that the trial court considered the parties’ respective motions detailed above and, consequently, matters outside the pleadings. Likewise, in their briefs on appeal, both parties have repeatedly cited to evidence appearing in the record but outside the pleadings. We therefore construe the motion at issue as one for summary judgment under Mississippi Rule of Civil Procedure 56. Davis v. City of Clarksdale, 18 So.3d 246, 248-49 (¶ 8) (Miss.2009) (citing Gulledge v. Shaw, 880 So.2d 288, 292 (¶¶ 7-9) (Miss.2004)).

¶ 5. The dissent argues that the supreme court’s decision in Davis, handed down on September 17, 2009, has been overruled or superseded by Sullivan v. Tullos, 19 So.3d 1271 (Miss.2009), which was handed down five weeks later. However, the holding of Sullivan — that the trial court must give ten days’ notice of its intent to convert a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to a motion for summary judgment under Rule 56 — has been the law in Mississippi since 1994. See id. at 1275 (¶ 15) (citing Palmer v. Biloxi Reg’l Med. Ctr., 649 So.2d 179, 183 (Miss.1994)). Likewise, the holding in Davis— that where the original motion is styled a 12(b)(6) motion but contains exhibits outside the pleadings and is treated by the parties and the court as a summary judgment motion, it should be reviewed as such on appeal — was not new; it has been the law in Mississippi since at least 2004. See [3]*3Rein v. Benchmark Const. Co., 865 So.2d 1134, 1142 (¶ 24) (Miss.2004). If the two cases necessarily present a conflict in their holdings, the supreme court has not noticed it.

¶ 6. The dissent may very well be correct in its concern that there is a potential conflict between the two holdings. Nonetheless, the facts of the instant case squarely align with Davis and allay any concern as to whether the Robisons had notice of the nature of the motion and an opportunity to respond; this is the heart of the ten-day notice requirement. Mississippi Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b) states in pertinent part that:

If, on a motion to dismiss for failure of the pleading to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, matters outside the pleading are presented to and not excluded by the court, the motion shall be treated as one for summary judgment and disposed of as provided in Rule 56, and all parties shall be given reasonable opportunity to present all material made pertinent to such a motion by Rule 56....

See also Sullivan, 19 So.3d at 1274-75 (¶ 15).

¶ 7. In Sullivan, the trial court converted a genuine 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss to a motion for summary judgment after minimal evidence outside the pleadings was offered during the hearing on the motion. Id. at 1273 (¶ 5). The supreme court held that the trial court erred in entering summary judgment without offering the plaintiffs a continuance to conduct discovery or an opportunity for another hearing on the newly converted summary judgment motion. Id. at 1275 (¶ 19).

¶ 8. Although couched as one under Rule 12(b)(6), Enterprise’s original motion contained exhibits outside the pleadings. The instant case, therefore, resembles Davis rather than Sullivan; in Davis, the “conversion” stemmed not from the trial court’s decision to convert the motion in response to evidence offered at the hearing, but from the original motion itself. See Davis, 18 So.3d at 248 (¶ 8). Moreover, notice of the nature of the motion and an opportunity to respond are not at issue in the instant case. The original motion was filed on March 3, 2008, and a response from the Robisons followed on March 14. Although styled a response to the motion to dismiss, it too, in substance, was a response to a summary judgment motion. The Robisons attached additional exhibits outside the pleadings — an affidavit and excerpts from a deposition — and they urged the court to find a question of fact for the jury. Enterprise’s response, filed on March 24, again urged the Court to consider matters outside the pleadings. A notice of hearing on the motions was filed on March 31, and the hearing was set for and held on July 1, 2008, three months after the notice of the hearing and'almost four months after exhibits outside the pleadings were offered with the initial motion. Two weeks after the hearing, the Robisons offered a supplemental response, purporting to enumerate undisputed facts and urging the trial court to find “genuine issues of material fact.” This is clearly addressed to a summary judgment motion; it does not resemble a response to a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6). The trial court did not rule on the motion until February 5, 2009, nearly a year after the original motion — with exhibits outside the pleadings— was filed.

¶ 9. On appeal, both parties have again treated this, in substance, as‘an appeal from a grant of summary judgment.

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Bluebook (online)
57 So. 3d 1, 2010 Miss. App. LEXIS 385, 2010 WL 2816649, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robison-v-enterprise-leasing-co-south-central-missctapp-2010.