Rodriguez v. Primadonna Co.

216 P.3d 793, 125 Nev. 578, 125 Nev. Adv. Rep. 45, 2009 Nev. LEXIS 46
CourtNevada Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 1, 2009
DocketNo. 49409
StatusPublished
Cited by51 cases

This text of 216 P.3d 793 (Rodriguez v. Primadonna Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nevada Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rodriguez v. Primadonna Co., 216 P.3d 793, 125 Nev. 578, 125 Nev. Adv. Rep. 45, 2009 Nev. LEXIS 46 (Neb. 2009).

Opinion

[580]*580OPINION

By the Court,

Hardesty, C.J.:

Fabian Santiago, then 17 years old, and his two adult step-uncles Manuel and Daniel Garibay, were asked to leave a hotel property after an evening of drinking and disorderly behavior. Manuel drove the three from the hotel parking lot. Mistaking a frontage road for the freeway, Manuel rolled the vehicle while driving at approxi[581]*581mately 80 miles per hour. Fabian suffered severe spinal injuries in the accident. His guardian brought suit in district court alleging that the hotel acted negligently when it evicted Fabian and his step-uncles from the property by allowing or directing Fabian to be a passenger in a motorized vehicle driven by an intoxicated driver.

In this appeal, we consider whether the district court properly entered summary judgment in favor of the respondent hotel corporations, dismissing appellant’s negligence claim. Appellant’s claim was grounded, in part, on allegations that respondents’ security personnel acted unreasonably when they evicted an intoxicated minor patron, who was injured in a motor vehicle accident. We conclude that the eviction was reasonable as a matter of law. We further conclude that Nevada’s rejection of dram-shop liability applies to a claim for damages made by an intoxicated patron that occur after the patron is reasonably evicted.

Second, in this appeal, we are asked to review whether the district court properly denied respondents’ motion for attorney fees and costs, which was grounded on an assertion that appellant’s negligence action was frivolous. According to respondents, the action was frivolous because it was barred by relevant legal authority. Because appellant’s claims are based upon a nonfrivolous argument for the extension of the law defining negligent eviction, we conclude that the district court properly denied respondents’ motion for attorney fees and costs.

Finally, we are asked to determine whether a cross-claimant can maintain an implied indemnity claim when the underlying liability action is dismissed through summary judgment without a finding of fault against the proposed indemnitor. Having considered persuasive authority from other jurisdictions, we conclude that a prerequisite to recovery on an implied indemnity claim is a finding that the third-party defendant is liable for damages to the plaintiff on the underlying claim. Implied indemnity cannot be used to allow one innocent party to recover its defense costs from another innocent party. Accordingly, the district court’s dismissal of the third-party claim was ultimately proper because no right to implied indemnity exists for defense fees and costs when the district court has dismissed the underlying claim but has not determined the fault of the third-party defendant.

FACTS

On March 6, 2005, Marlene Garibay, her 17-year-old son, Fabian Santiago, and Fabian’s adult step-uncles, Manuel and Daniel Garibay, checked into respondent/cross-appellant Primadonna Company, LLC’s, hotel in Primm, Nevada. Fabian, Manuel, and Daniel spent the evening gambling and drinking alcoholic beverages on the Primadonna’s premises. Daniel, who purchased the alcohol from the [582]*582hotel’s liquor store, shared it with Manuel and Fabian, who became intoxicated.

Fabian, Manuel, and Daniel admit engaging in disruptive behavior on Primadonna’s premises. In particular, Fabian, Manuel, and Daniel were involved in at least two altercations with other hotel guests, and otherwise disturbed guests by kicking and knocking on hotel room doors. During one of the altercations, Manuel punched another hotel guest in the face. Primadonna’s security personnel intervened and, at the security officers’ request, Fabian, Manuel, and Daniel agreed to leave the hotel property.

Three hotel security officers accompanied Fabian, Manuel, and Daniel to their room to gather their belongings. While waiting outside of the hotel room door while the three men had gathered their belongings, a security officer overheard one of the men tell a woman inside of the room that they had been asked to leave the hotel for fighting. Manuel testified that he told the woman, Marlene Garibay, that the three men were going to sleep in the car in the parking lot. Manuel also testified that Marlene had expressed her concern with his level of intoxication. She then exited the hotel room and spoke with the hotel security officers, telling them that Fabian, Manuel, and Daniel could not leave, and that they would stay in the room and “sleep it off.” Nevertheless, the hotel security officers escorted the three men to their vehicle, which was located in the hotel’s parking lot.

According to Fabian, the three men were going to leave the hotel premises and “sleep it off” in the car. Similarly, the appellate record indicates that Manuel, who did not have a valid driver’s license, did not intend to drive because he believed his blood-alcohol concentration level was higher than the legal limit. Once at their vehicle, however, Manuel told Daniel that he was sober enough to drive and sat in the driver’s seat. After they were seated in the vehicle, hotel security officers approached, knocked on the window, and informed the young men that they had to leave Primadonna’s parking lot.

Consequently, Manuel drove the vehicle out of the Primadonna’s parking lot. Mistaking a frontage road for the freeway entrance, Manuel rolled the vehicle while driving at approximately 80 miles per hour. Fabian was seriously injured in the accident, suffering extreme spinal injuries, leaving him a quadriplegic.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Fabian’s grandfather and guardian ad litem, appellant/cross-respondent Martin Rodriguez, filed a negligence action against Primadonna in both his individual capacity and on Fabian’s behalf, seeking damages for Fabian’s injuries, based on allegations that the [583]*583Primadonna’s staff acted unreasonably in evicting Fabian from the premises. During the underlying proceedings, Primadonna filed a third-party complaint against Marlene, Fabian’s mother, for indemnity, alleging that Primadonna was entitled to indemnification and contribution of the fees and costs incurred to defend the action because Marlene knowingly permitted Fabian, her minor child, to ride with an intoxicated driver who did not have a valid driver’s license.

After the close of discovery, Primadonna filed two summary judgment motions. In its first motion for summary judgment, Primadonna argued that it had a duty and a right to evict disruptive individuals from its premises. Primadonna also contended that even though Fabian was a minor and Manuel was intoxicated, it did not owe a duty to keep Fabian on the premises or to prevent Manuel from driving. Asserting that it did not require Fabian, Manuel, and Daniel to leave by driving their own car, Primadonna maintained that it was not liable for damages related to Fabian’s injuries.

In opposition, Rodriguez argued, among other things, that the Primadonna was obligated to act reasonably when evicting Fabian, Manuel, and Daniel. And because the Primadonna directed or allowed Fabian into a vehicle with an intoxicated driver, Rodriguez argued that whether the hotel complied with this duty was a question of fact for the jury.

The district court granted the motion for summary judgment, finding that Primadonna had the right and duty to evict Fabian, Manuel, and Daniel from the hotel premises and that Primadonna used reasonable force in effectuating the eviction.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
216 P.3d 793, 125 Nev. 578, 125 Nev. Adv. Rep. 45, 2009 Nev. LEXIS 46, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rodriguez-v-primadonna-co-nev-2009.