Sharbino v. Cooke Family Enterprises, LLC

6 So. 3d 1026, 8 La.App. 3 Cir. 1306, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 550, 2009 WL 838546
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 1, 2009
Docket08-1306
StatusPublished

This text of 6 So. 3d 1026 (Sharbino v. Cooke Family Enterprises, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sharbino v. Cooke Family Enterprises, LLC, 6 So. 3d 1026, 8 La.App. 3 Cir. 1306, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 550, 2009 WL 838546 (La. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

AMY, Judge.

_[/The plaintiff filed a suit for rescission of the sale of a motorcycle which he purchased from the defendant. The defendant filed a motion for summary judgment alleging that it should be dismissed as the sale was rescinded prior to the filing of suit. The trial court entered summary judgment in favor of the defendant and awarded attorney fees. The plaintiff appeals. For the following reasons, we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings.

*1027 Factual and Procedural Background

On February 5, 2007, the plaintiff, Wiley Sharbino, purchased a 2003 Harley Davidson motorcycle from the defendant, Cooke Family Enterprises, L.L.C., d/b/a Renegade Harley-Davidson. He filed this matter on September 10, 2007, alleging that within two days of purchase, the motorcycle sustained a broken drive belt. He contended that, upon return to the dealership, he was informed that “the drive sprockets on the transmission and the rear wheel of the motorcycle were mismatched, causing the drive belt to break.” He stated that the condition could not be remedied without changing the appearance of the motorcycle and that he would not have purchased the motorcycle had he known of this condition. He alleged that the dealership knew of the condition prior to the sale and that it was in bad faith in the sale. Thus, the plaintiff asserted that he was entitled to the sales price plus interest, reasonable expenses related to the sale and preservation of the motorcycle, and attorney fees.

In its answer, the defendant acknowledged that the plaintiff purchased the motorcycle, but denied, among other things, that its employees acted in bad faith. The defendant further asserted that the petition failed to allege a cause of action as it had previously “rescinded the sale, paid all amounts outstanding on the purchase |2price of the Motorcycle, and satisfied all liens against the Motorcycle.” The defendant contended that the plaintiff could not have suffered pecuniary damages, as he had not made payments on the motorcycle, and that he did not suffer non-pecuniary damages.

Thereafter, on July 8, 2008, the defendant filed a motion for summary judgment, which it supplemented with the affidavit of Eddy F. Soberon, the defendant’s co-owner and dealer/operator. Included in his statements are details of the sale of the motorcycle, as well as the rescission of the sale and the defendant’s satisfaction of the related lien. The record contains no opposition filed by the plaintiff. The minutes and transcript reflect that neither the plaintiff nor his counsel was present at the motion for summary judgment hearing conducted on August 25, 2008. Following the hearing, the trial court entered judgment in favor of the defendant, dismissing the plaintiffs petition and, upon oral motion of the defendant’s attorney, awarded $1,000.00 in attorney fees as well as court costs.

The plaintiff appeals, questioning both the entry of summary judgment and the imposition of attorney fees.

Discussion

The plaintiff contends that summary judgment was inappropriate and that he did not assert an opposition as there was “no discovery in this case.” He also argues that the defendant’s submission was without “references to the critical issue of knowledge of defects prior to the sale, determinative of Plaintiffs claimed right to relief under Civil Code Article 2545.” He also asserts that the “mover never carried its burden by negating by affidavit or other proof glaringly obvious issues of material fact, the burden therefore never shifted to Plaintiff, and the Motion for Summary ^Judgment should not have been granted.” The plaintiffs argument fails in various respects.

Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Article 966(B) provides that summary judgment “shall be rendered forthwith 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.” With regard to burden of proof, Article 966(C)(2) provides that:

*1028 The burden of proof remains with the movant. 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 burden of proof at trial, there is no genuine issue of material fact.

This article indicates that, since it was the plaintiff who had the burden of proving all aspects of his claim at trial, the defendant was only required to point out an absence of factual support for “one or more elements essential to the adverse party’s elaim[.]” Id. Thereafter, the plaintiff was required to establish that he would be able to meet his evidentiary burden of proof. The plaintiff failed to do so.

Louisiana Civil Code Article 2520 instructs, in part, that:

The seller warrants the buyer against redhibitory defects, or vices, in the thing sold.
A defect is redhibitory when it renders the thing useless, or its use so inconvenient that it must be presumed that a buyer would not have bought the thing had he known of the defect. The existence of such a defect gives a buyer the right to obtain rescission of the sale.
| ,A defect is redhibitory also when, without rendering the thing totally useless, it diminishes its usefulness or its value so that it must be presumed that a buyer would still have bought it but for a lesser price.

The plaintiffs suit was for rescission of the sale, and, due to his allegation of bad faith on the part of the defendant, he sought recovery under La.Civ.Code art. 2545, which provides:

A seller who knows that the thing he sells has a defect but omits to declare it, or a seller who declares that the thing has a quality that he knows it does not have, is liable to the buyer for the return of the price with interest from the time it was paid, for the reimbursement of the reasonable expenses occasioned by the sale and those incurred for the preservation of the thing, and also for damages and reasonable attorney fees. If the use made of the thing, or the fruits it may have yielded, were of some value to the buyer, such a seller may be allowed credit for such use or fruits.
A seller is deemed to know that the thing he sells has a redhibitory defect when he is a manufacturer of that thing.

The defendant produced evidence indicating that the plaintiff would be unable to establish the merits of his claim and further evidence indicating that no damages were owed. Particularly, Mr.

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Related

§ 2545
Louisiana § 2545

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Bluebook (online)
6 So. 3d 1026, 8 La.App. 3 Cir. 1306, 2009 La. App. LEXIS 550, 2009 WL 838546, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sharbino-v-cooke-family-enterprises-llc-lactapp-2009.