Title: City of Mobile v. Dirt, Inc.

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

475 So. 2d 503 (1985)
CITY OF MOBILE, a municipal corporation
v.
DIRT, INC.
83-1364.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
July 19, 1985.
William H. Brigham, Mobile, for appellant.
W. Borden Strickland, Mobile, for appellee.
JONES, Justice.
This is a "sufficiency of the evidence" case. By motion for directed verdict, timely filed, with properly stated grounds, Defendant/Appellant City of Mobile challenged the sufficiency of Plaintiff/Appellee Dirt's evidence in support of its claim for breach of contract.
From our careful review of the record, we are convinced that the undisputed evidence discloses that Plaintiff failed to comply with the express terms of the subject contract, and thus no fact issue existed for the jury's determination. Because the trial judge erred in not granting Defendant City's directed verdict motion, we reverse and render.
Immediately after Hurricane Frederic struck the gulf coast on September 12, 1979, the City of Mobile contracted with various truck operators to gather and remove the storm's debris from the city and dump it in two excavated pits. On November 21, 1979, the City entered into a contract with Dirt, which provides:
In 1981, Dirt informed the City that it had completed the contract's requirements and submitted a claim for payment. The City paid Dirt a total of $34,276, thus acknowledging that Dirt had complied with the contract provisions as to 8.5 acres. Dirt, however, maintained that it had completed the contract as to the entire 18.3 acres; thus, it sued the City, seeking payment for an additional 9.8 acres. The City, upon investigation, determined that Dirt had not complied with the contract as to any acreage.
The jury returned a verdict for Dirt in the amount of $25,094.48, half the amount sued for, plus interest. Having been denied directed verdict at the close of the evidence, the City then moved for judgment *504 notwithstanding the verdict. From the denial of that motion, the City appeals.
Defendant City argues that Dirt presented insufficient evidence to present a factual issue for the jury to decide. Thus, maintains the City, the trial court committed reversible error in not directing a verdict for the City and in allowing the case to go to the jury. In evaluating Defendant City's argument, we begin, as always in a directed verdict analysis, by viewing the evidence of record in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Ritch v. Waldrop, 428 So. 2d 1 (Ala.1982).
When we turn to the record, however, we find the following deposition testimony by Lamar Harrison, owner and president of Dirt:
Dirt argues that this testimony has to be read along with the following testimony by Mr. Harrison, which, it contends, tends to show the required twelve feet of compacted debris:
This testimony, however, does not modify or negate Mr. Harrison's previous deposition testimony that we have set out. It is clear that the twelve feet referred to in the above testimony is in reference to a time earlier than the date of final compacting of the debris and the application of the compact dirt cover, at which time the depth of the debris was less than half that required by the contract.
In sum, therefore, we can think of no clearer case of a "complete absence of proof on a material issue or where there are no controverted questions of fact on which reasonable people could differ." Deaton, Inc. v. Burroughs, 456 So. 2d 771 (Ala.1984). With the foregoing testimony by Dirt's officer to the effect that it did not comply with the provisions of the contract, no factual issue existed to be submitted to the jury. Thus, the trial court committed reversible error in submitting the case to the jury and in denying the City's motion for directed verdict.
REVERSED AND RENDERED.
TORBERT, C.J., and MADDOX, SHORES and BEATTY, JJ., concur.