Upton v. Rouse's Enterprise, LLC

186 So. 3d 1195, 15 La.App. 5 Cir. 484, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 336, 2016 WL 756484
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 24, 2016
DocketNo. 15-CA-484
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 186 So. 3d 1195 (Upton v. Rouse's Enterprise, 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
Upton v. Rouse's Enterprise, LLC, 186 So. 3d 1195, 15 La.App. 5 Cir. 484, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 336, 2016 WL 756484 (La. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

ROBERT A. CHAISSON, Judge.

| ^Plaintiff, Mary Upton, appeals from a trial court ruling that granted summary judgment in favor of defendants, Rouse’s [1197]*1197Enterprise, LLC (“Rouse’s”) and its insurer, Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Compá-ny (“Liberty Mutual”). For the reasons that follow, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

This case arises from an accident that occurred on June 22, 2009, at a Rouse's grocery store located- in Kenner, Louisiana. On that day, Mrs. Upton and her husband, Willie Upton, went into the grocery store specifically to get a watermelon for the advertised price of five dollars. Upon entry to the store, Mrs. Upton walked directly to the watermelon display, which consisted of a large cardboard box situated on top of a wooden pallet. Mrs. Upton walked around the watermelon display without any difficulty and stopped in order to reach into the box to get a watermelon. As she did this, she unknowingly placed her feet inside the pallet openings. She then picked up a watermelon and, without moving her | sfeet, turned her body around to show it to her husband. After her husband told her that he did not want that watermelon, she turned her body back around and returned the watermelon to the box. As she then stepped away from the watermelon display, Mrs. Upton fell.

As a result of injuries allegedly received in this fall, Mrs. Upton filed a petition for damages against Rouse’s and its insurer, Liberty Mutual. In the petition, Mrs. Upton alleged that as she stepped away from the display box of watermelons, “her foot became lodged/trapped in an opening on the bottom of the display that was. not visible twisting her foot and ankle causing her to lose her balance and fall violently to the floor on her right side resulting in serious and permanent injuries.”

On November 17, 2014, Rouse’s and-Liberty Mutual filed a motion for summary judgment seeking dismissal of Mrs. Upton’s claim on the basis that “the pleadings, exhibits and deposition testimony filed in ■ the' record establish no genuine issue of material fact which supports Plaintiffs allegation that defendants are liable for her damages.” In support of their motion, defendants asserted that Mrs. Upton could not meet her burden of proof as set forth in La. R.S. 9:2800.6. Specifically, defendants represented that Mrs. Upton Could not satisfy her burden of proving either that the display constituted an unreasonably dangerous condition since it was operi and obvious, or-that there was a foreign substance on the floor. In addition, defendants asserted that even assuming that there was a foreign substance on the floor, Mrs. Upton failed to provide evidence that Rouse’s either created or had actual br constructive notice of the substance prior to the occurrence. Lastly, defendants maintained that Mrs. Upton presented no evidence to reflect that Rouse’s failed to exercise reasonable care.

|4Mrs. Upton thereafter filed an opposition to defendants’ motion arguing that numerous disputed facts precluded the granting of summary judgment in this case. Mrs. Úpton further contended that the" determination of whether the watermelon display created an unreasonable risk of harm was not an appropriate issue for summary judgment, but rather was an issue for the trier of fact at a trial on the merits.

Following a hearing, the trial court, on May 13, 2015, "granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment finding that there were no genuine issues of material fact and that Mrs. Upton failed to produce factual support sufficient to establish that she will be able, to meet her evidentiary burden at trial. In its reasons for judgment, the trial court found that the display did not constitute an unreasonable risk, of harm and further found that Mrs. Upton [1198]*1198failed to produce factual support for the period of time the juice may have been present in order to meet the required temporal element in La. R.S. 9:2800.6.

Mrs. Upton now contends that the trial court erred in granting defendants’ motion for summary judgment. She first complains about the' analysis used by the trial court in making its determination that the watermelon display did not constitute an unreasonable risk of harm. In particular, Mrs. Upton contends that the trial court erred in analyzing this matter as a slip and fall case and in thereafter relying on the holding in Primrose v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 48,370 (La.App. 2 Cir. 10/2/13), 127 So.3d 13, to reach the conclusion that the watermelon display was not unreasonably dangerous on the basis that “the social value and utility of the display outweigh any potential harm to others.” Secondly, Mrs. Upton argues that the trial court erred in finding that she failed to produce factual support to show that Rouse’s had constructive notice of watermelon juice on the floor. She contends that sincé Rouse’s created the unreasonably dangerous condition of | ^watermelon juice leaking onto the floor, she did not have to prove the temporal' element required under La. R.S. 9:2800.6. For the reasons that follow, we find no merit to these arguments and affirm the granting of summary judgment in this matter. '

DISCUSSION

A motion for summary judgment is a procedural device used to avoid a full-scale trial when there-is no genuine issue of material fact. Bell v. Parry, 10-369 (La.App. 6 Cir. 11/23/10), 61 So.3d 1, 2. The summary judgment procedure is favored and is designed to secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action. La.' C.C.P. art. 966(A)(2).

A motion for summary judgment should be granted only if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions* together with the affidavits, if any, admitted for purposes of the motion for summary judgment, show that there is no genuine issue as to material fact, and that mover is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. La. C.C.P. art. 966(B)(2). A material fact is one that potentially insures or prevents recovery, affects a litigant’s ultimate success, or determines the outcome of the lawsuit. An issue is genuine if it is such that reasonable persons could disagree; if only one conclusion could be reached by reasonable persons, summary judgment is appropriate as there is no need for trial on that issue. Anny v. Babin, 12-164 (La.App. 5 Cir. 7/31/12), 99 So.3d 702, 706, writ denied, 12-1972 (La.12/14/12), 104 So.3d 441,

Under La. C.C.P. art. 966, the initial burden is on the mover to show that no genuine issue of material fact exists. If the moving party will not bear the burden of proof at trial, the moving party must only point out that there is an absence of factual support for one or more elements essential to the adverse party’s claim, action, or defense. The nonmoving party must then produce factual support to ^establish that he will be able to satisfy his evidentiary burden of proof at trial. If the nonmoving party fails to do so, there is no genuine issue of material fact, and summary judgment should be granted. La. C.C.P. art. 966(C)(2); Bobino v. Jefferson Transit, 12-468 (La.App. 5 Cir. 2/21/13), 110 So.3d 1123, 1126.

Appellate courts review a judgment granting or denying a motion for summary judgment de novo. Thus, appellate courts ask the same questions the trial court does in. determining whether summary judgment is appropriate: whether there is any genuine issue of material fact, and whether [1199]*1199the mover, is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Breaux v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
186 So. 3d 1195, 15 La.App. 5 Cir. 484, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 336, 2016 WL 756484, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/upton-v-rouses-enterprise-llc-lactapp-2016.