Court Opinion

ID: 9574623
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:06:30.498485+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:44:25.663536
License: Public Domain

FENTON, Superior Court Judge
(dissenting) :
I agree in part with the opinion of Judge Hathaway and in part with the specially concurring opinion of Judge Molloy, but in this partial agreement with both opinions, I reach an entirely different conclusion.
I agree with Judge Molloy that summary judgment should not have been granted since there were material issues which remained to be litigated. Our Supreme Court has repeatedly held that a motion for summary judgment should not be granted where there are any contested issues of fact, and that a motion for summary judgment is not to resolve disputed issues but to determine whether there are, in fact, any such issues remaining to be litigated. Peterson v. Valley National Bank, 90 Ariz. 361, 368 P.2d 317 (1962); Elson Development Co. v. Arizona Savings & Loan Association, 99 Ariz. 217, 407 P.2d 930 (1965); Elerick v. Rocklin, 102 Ariz. 78, 425 P.2d 103 (1967).
Although the motion for summary judgment must be determined as of the time made, by hindsight, it is obvious from the evidence produced at the trial between the injured party and Valley National Bank, that there was, in fact, a triable issue as raised in the affidavit submitted in opposition to the motion for summary judgment, to wit: that the Valley National Bank had prior notice of malfunctions of the elevator which had not been reported to the Otis Elevator Company.
I also agree with Chief Judge Hathaway, for the reasons he sets forth, that Otis was not judicially estopped from appealing the motion for summary judgment.
Accordingly, for the foregoing reasons, it is my conclusion that the order of the court below, granting the motion for summary *506judgment, should be reversed and set aside and the matter sent back to determine the extent of the liability of Valley National Bank and Otis in payment of the judgment obtained after trial.