Court Opinion

ID: 9625570
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:44:55.699149+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:25:53.660901
License: Public Domain

*999THOMAS, Justice
(concurring).
I concur in the affirmance of the judgment of this case. I do, however, hold a more limited view of the rationale of our decision than that expressed in the majority opinion.
This court previously has said that in connection with an action to recover damages attributable to the negligence of another, “There must be the necessity of the performance of a duty and a failure to perform it.” Hildebrand v. Chicago B. & Q. R. R., 45 Wyo. 175, .198, 17 P.2d 651, 658 (1933). The plaintiff claimed that the instrumentality by which the defendants failed to perform any duty owed to him was a defective gas refrigerator furnished as an appliance in the apartment which he leased. The plaintiff alleged that he “was overcome by gas fumes emanating from an old gas refrigerator” and “subsequent to the accident, it was discovered that the leaking gas had come from the refrigerator.” He also alleged that the defendants “knew, or in the exercise of reasonable care, should have known, of the dangerous condition of the gas refrigerator” and “that the old, defective gas refrigerator in Plaintiff’s apartment had a high probability of causing injury.” The plaintiff thus linked the elements of duty and breach to the defective gas refrigerator, and the defendants structured a pleading issue by denying these allegations. Looking beyond the pleadings, however, the deposition of the plaintiff then discloses the following:
“Q. Do you know of any person who has knowledge of any defect in this refrigerator ?
“A. No, I don’t.”
We have said that Rule 56, W.R.C.P. and Wyoming cases impose a burden on both parties to demonstrate to the court the absence or existence of a conflict as to the material facts. McClure v. Watson, Wyo., 490 P.2d 1059 (1971). The defendants, as the moving parties, did have the initial burden of demonstrating that there was no genuine issue of material fact, and that they were entitled to judgment as a matter of law, which burden they must assume regardless of the burden of proof at trial. Mealey v. City of Laramie, Wyo., 472 P.2d 787 (1970). In this case the defendants sustained their burden by virtue of the admission by the plaintiff that he had no evidence to support an essential element of his cause of action. The plaintiff produced nothing to counteract his admission.
Just as a failure of proof by the plaintiff of one or more elements of his action may lead to a directed verdict and judgment for the defendant at trial, a showing on the record that the plaintiff is without any proof of one of the elements of his cause of action results in the proper granting of a defense motion for summary judgment. Such an admission is a most appropriate way to demonstrate that there is no genuine issue of fact relating to that particular element of the plaintiff’s cause of action, and it can be relied upon by the trial court in entering summary judgment for the defendants upon their motion. See Douglas v. Beneficial Finance Co., 334 F.Supp. 1166 (D.Alas.1971), reversed on other grounds, 469 F.2d 453 (9th Cir. 1972); 10 Wright and Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure, § 2722, pp. 481-482 (1973).
The plaintiff having admitted that he had no evidence of a defect in the gas refrigerator which he asserted in his Complaint, the defendants were entitled to the summary judgment which the trial court granted. Any other issues of fact, whether structured by the pleadings or demonstrated to be genuine by the depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits would not relate to material facts because they could not affect the result of this litigation in view of the plaintiff’s conceded inability to establish any defect in the refrigerator. Without such proof his recovery is foreclosed as a matter of law.