Court Opinion

ID: 9847446
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:59:56.984426+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:12.286182
License: Public Domain

ROONEY, Justice,
dissenting.
PREAMBLE
The result reached by the majority opinion is founded on the alleged failure to make the file of the United States District Court a part of the record in the trial court and the failure to include such file in the record before us. The majority opinion notes that the district judge,
“relied exclusively upon the contents of the record in the previous federal court litigation to establish the lack of a genuine issue of material fact as required for the issuance of summary judgment by Rule 56(c), W.R.C.P. Unfortunately, the contents of that record were not filed with the court below nor are they part of the record presently before this court.” (Footnotes omitted and emphasis in original.)
The record before us contains briefs of both parties as presented to the district court in connection with pretrial matters and with the summary judgment, and it contains the opinion letter of the judge, all of which refer to the material in the file on the federal case as a basis for argument and for holding. The briefs of the parties on this appeal do likewise. One of the trial court’s bases for the summary judgment was undisputed facts which establish culpable negligence on the part of Lonnie L. Hickey, for whose death appellants base their claim. The trial court quoted from Restatement, Torts 2d, § 503(3):
“A plaintiff whose conduct is in reckless disregard of his own safety is barred from recovery against a defendant whose reckless disregard of the plaintiff’s safety is a legal cause of the plaintiff’s harm.”
The court concluded that appellees’:
“* * * decision not to proceed with a culpable negligence action was an ‘honest exercise of professional judgment’, based on an informed decision and may not be the subject of a legal malpractice action. * * * ”
The summary judgment issued accordingly.
RECORD IN DISTRICT COURT
Although not filed with the clerk of court, the record of the federal case was before the trial court in connection with the motion for a summary judgment. Rule 56(c), W.R.C.P., includes “pleadings” among that which is to be considered in determining the propriety of a summary judgment. In his Pretrial Order, the district judge stated that:
“1. This pretrial order includes the Joint Statement, supersedes the pleadings, and shall govern the course of the trial of this cause, * * * and is hereby modified in the following particulars: See Schedule A attached hereto and by this reference made a part hereof.”
Schedule A recites in part: “Each witness and exhibit named or listed * * * in the Joint Statements will be produced at the trial * * *” (emphasis added). In Attachment A to the Joint Pretrial Statement, signed by the attorney for appellants and the attorney for appellees, appellants list as a witness:
“A representative of the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming will testify, if necessary, to the identity and contents of the official federal court file, or a copy thereof, including the deposition transcripts taken and filed therein, all relating to the underlying litigation initiated by Defendant Burnett.”
Both appellants and appellees list the file on the federal case as an exhibit. Appellants describe it as, “Federal court file (duplicate) including deposition tran*747scripts.” Appellees describe it as, “Federal Court file.”
Inasmuch as the Pretrial Order considered that contained in the Joint Pretrial Statement as superseding the pleadings, and inasmuch as the federal case file was designated in the Joint Pretrial Statement as an exhibit that “will be produced” at trial, and inasmuch as appellants, themselves, made a representation that such “will be done,” the trial judge properly considered the federal case file in deciding the motion for a summary judgment.
RECORD IN THIS COURT
The federal case file is not included in the record on appeal to this court. Any party desiring it to be considered by us had the obligation to designate it for inclusion in the record on appeal. As the majority opinion states, there is not sufficient information in the record on appeal to confirm the trial court’s reference to facts which establish without contradiction that:
“* * * It is obvious that the immediate cause of Mr. Hickey’s death was handling an energized cable in violation of company rule. He was the foreman and also in charge of safety. If anyone should have known the safety rules and the damages of the operation he should have. He chose to ignore the very rules he was obligated to see were obeyed. If anyone was culpably negligent, it was he. * * *”
CONCLUSION
Inasmuch as the record before us does not include all that which was before the trial court, and inasmuch as both parties intended such evidence to be presented in the trial, and inasmuch as a reversal of this case will only result in another motion for summary judgment with such evidence being attached for consideration resulting in another appeal, I would remand for the specific purpose of supplementing the record on appeal with the federal case file.