Harrison v. Legacy Hous., LP
Harrison v. Legacy Hous., LP
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff David Shannon Harrison filed this premises liability action seeking damages for injuries he sustained after he fell off of a ladder inside a warehouse owned by Defendant Legacy Housing, LP, GPLH, LC ("Legacy"). His wife, Plaintiff Courtney Gabrielle Harrison, asserts a related loss of consortium claim. Presently before the Court is Legacy's Motion for Summary Judgment. Having carefully considered the parties' arguments, the record, and applicable law, the Court finds no genuine issues of material fact exist as to Plaintiffs' claims. Thus, Legacy's Motion [Doc. 28] is GRANTED .
LEGAL STANDARD
Summary judgment is proper if the movant "shows that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law."
On summary judgment, the Court must view the evidence and all justifiable inferences in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party; the Court may not make credibility determinations or weigh the evidence.
"Where [ ] evidence is circumstantial, a court may grant summary judgment when it concludes that no reasonable jury may infer from the assumed facts the conclusion upon which the non-movant's claim rests."
Under Georgia law, "[i]n routine cases of premises of liability, i.e., the negligence of the defendant and the plaintiff, and the plaintiff's lack of ordinary care for personal safety are generally not susceptible of summary adjudication, and summary judgment is granted only when the evidence is plain, palpable, and undisputed."
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
For purposes of this Motion, the material facts in the light most favorable to Plaintiff, the non-movant, are as follows:
Defendant Legacy Housing, LP ("Legacy") is a mobile-home manufacturing business based in Fort Worth, Texas. In September 2015, Legacy purchased property and buildings in Eatonton, Georgia formerly owned by Horton Homes, a mobile-home *1294manufacturing business that shut down in 2015. In addition to manufacturing mobile homes, Horton Homes also operated a molding and laminating division of its company called "Horton Components." The laminating process is a necessary component of manufacturing a mobile home.
After Legacy acquired the deed to Horton Homes' manufacturing facilities in late 2015, Mr. Sneed called Curtis Hodgson, one of Legacy's co-owners, to inquire about Legacy's interest in setting up a molding and laminating division in one of its newly-acquired warehouses in Eatonton. Sneed hoped he and Johnson could continue the laminating work they had done with Horton Homes.
At that time, Legacy outsourced the molding and laminating for its mobile homes to third parties. Sneed proposed a business relationship whereby Legacy would provide the working capital and space for Sneed to establish his own laminating company, and Sneed would pay rent for the building and provide laminating materials for Legacy's mobile homes at a discounted price. The parties anticipated Legacy being a major customer of the laminating business but not the only customer. At that time, Sneed and Hodgson were not contemplating the laminating business being a division of Legacy or Sneed being an employee of Legacy.
After their meeting in December, Sneed and Hodgson talked "once every week or so" about the equipment Sneed needed to start the laminating business. In late January 2016, Sneed began visiting the site of the potential laminating plant, a warehouse owned by Legacy known as the "green building." Horton Homes had used the green building to store carpet and electrical supplies on two long rows of shelving racks inside the building. Each shelving unit was approximately twelve feet tall with four levels of shelves.
On January 20, 2016, Sneed emailed Hodgson about his desire to take down *1295some of the shelving in the green building to get a better view of the space. Sneed wrote, "when do you think I can bring someone in to help me tear down racks, build walls and other miscellaneous stuff that needs to be done[?]"
Although Johnson was no longer involved as a potential business partner with Legacy and Sneed in setting up and operating the laminating plant, Johnson continued to monitor the development of the laminating business with Sneed.
Plaintiff David Harrison
On Wednesday, January 20th-the same day Sneed emailed Hodgson asking when he could bring someone in to help tear down the shelving units-Plaintiff, who had earlier been hunting with Johnson, rode with Johnson to the green building to see what Sneed was working on and "to listen and observe."
The next evening, Thursday January 21st, Johnson told Plaintiff during a telephone conversation that Sneed had secured a forklift to take down the shelving in the green building. "So somewhere in the conversation between me [Plaintiff] and [Johnson] it was decided to go out there [the next day] to help [Sneed] take down the shelving."
*1296would meet up with him and help him out."
On Friday, January 22nd, Plaintiff finished his personal business, ate some lunch, and drove to the green building. When he arrived around noon, Johnson and Sneed were already in the building working on dismantling the shelving. Johnson and Sneed "told [Plaintiff] what the game plan was as far as taking the shelving down and what they were doing."
After Johnson and Sneed returned to the building from lunch, the three men continued dismantling the shelves for an hour to an hour-and-a-half without incident. After dismantling the shelves that could be reached by hand, Sneed and Johnson used a forklift to dismantle the higher shelves. Because operating the forklift was a two-man operation, Plaintiff did not use the forklift. Instead, Plaintiff saw an industrial ladder with a platform next to the shelving unit and used it to access the higher shelves.
As they met in the middle taking down the last section of the shelving unit, the vertical slat shifted, "snapped back," and hit the top of the ladder upon which Plaintiff stood causing it to topple over.
It is undisputed no Legacy employee or owner knew Sneed, Johnson, or Plaintiff was on the premises dismantling shelves on January 22, 2016, when the accident occurred. After the accident occurred, Sneed attempted to reach Hodgson by telephone, but he was unable to reach him. Sneed sent an email to Hodgson informing him of the accident.
Sometime in February 2016, it "was becoming clear" to Hodgson that Legacy would be the dominant customer, if not the only customer, of the laminating plant.
Plaintiffs filed this premises liability suit against Defendant Legacy, and Legacy seeks summary judgment on Plaintiffs' claims.
DISCUSSION
To establish negligence under Georgia law, Plaintiff must show (1) a legal duty; (2) a breach of this duty; (3) an injury; and (4) a causal connection between the breach and the injury.
As the owner of the warehouse where Plaintiff was injured, Legacy's duty to Plaintiff depends upon Plaintiff's legal status on Legacy's premises as an invitee, licensee, volunteer, or trespasser. Generally, a person is an invitee when "an owner or occupier of land, by express or implied invitation, induces or leads [him or her] to come upon his premises for any lawful purpose."
*1298Defendant Legacy argues Plaintiff was a trespasser, volunteer, or, at best, a licensee on its premises; thus, Legacy only owed him a duty not to willfully or wantonly injure him, and no evidence shows Legacy did so. Plaintiff counters he was an invitee lawfully on Legacy's business premises because Sneed, as Legacy's agent, recruited him to help remove shelving in furtherance of Legacy and Sneed's business together. Thus, Defendant owed Plaintiff a duty to exercise ordinary care in keeping the premises safe, and Sneed's breach of that duty may be imputed to Legacy as Sneed's principal. The Court is unpersuaded by Plaintiff's arguments. As explained below, no employment or agency relationship existed between Sneed and Defendant Legacy when Plaintiff was injured, and even if an agency relationship did exist, Sneed acted outside of the scope of any authority Defendant gave him to enlist Plaintiff's help to remove the shelving. Thus, Plaintiff was at most a licensee on Defendant's premises; as a licensee, Defendant owed Plaintiff a duty not to willfully or wantonly injure him, and no evidence supports a finding Legacy had any such willful or wanton intent. Finally, the Court finds even if Plaintiff was an invitee on Legacy's premises at the invitation of Sneed acting as Legacy's agent, no evidence shows Sneed breached any duty owed to Plaintiff.
Agency Relationship
To determine Plaintiff's legal status, and thus what duties Legacy owed to Plaintiff, the Court must first examine the relationship between Legacy and Plaintiff, which in turn hinges on the relationship between Sneed and Legacy. Plaintiff contends Sneed acted as an agent in the scope of Legacy's business when he recruited Plaintiff and supervised the removal of the commercial shelving units from Legacy's warehouse. Legacy, however, contends Sneed was working on the property in the scope of his personal business and had no agency relationship with Legacy. Thus, the threshold issue becomes whether sufficient evidence exists to show a genuine issue of material fact that Sneed was an agent of Legacy and not merely engaging in a personal endeavor.
Under Georgia law, an agency relationship can arise in three distinct ways: expressly, by implication, or through subsequent ratification by the principal of the agent's conduct.
Actual Agency
To determine whether an actual agency relationship exists, Georgia cases have used two tests: the traditional or "true" test of whether a person is a servant *1299or an independent contractor and a test using the list of ten factors set forth in the Restatement of Agency.
Under either test, the evidence fails to support an actual agency relationship between Sneed and Legacy at the time Plaintiff was injured. On January 22, 2016, when the accident occurred, the record is clear Sneed was neither employed by Legacy nor in partnership with Legacy. All evidence shows Sneed and Legacy were in discussions about a potential partnership with Sneed operating the laminating business and Legacy funding the operation to receive a discount on laminate. The evidence is also clear Sneed sought to dismantle the shelves for his benefit to get a better view of the space for the laminating equipment. Legacy did not control the time, manner, methods, or means of executing the work. Sneed had managed Horton Homes' laminating division for 20 years, and thus had the knowledge and skill to determine how to configure the warehouse space. Legacy had no experience in the laminating business, as it contracted its laminating to third parties. No evidence suggests Legacy had any control over the details of dismantling the shelves or that the work needed to be performed under its supervision. It is undisputed Legacy did not pay Sneed, Johnson, or Plaintiff for the work. Most importantly, it is undisputed Legacy had no knowledge Sneed, Johnson, and Plaintiff were dismantling the shelves on January 22nd.
Apparent Agency
In addition, no apparent agency relationship existed between Sneed and Legacy. Absent an express agreement, apparent authority exists "when the statements or conduct of the alleged principal reasonably cause the third party to believe that the principal consents to have the act done on his behalf by the purported agent."
Absolutely no evidence exists from which a jury could find Legacy engaged in any conduct to cause Plaintiff to reasonably believe Sneed had Legacy's authority to induce or allow Plaintiff to dismantle the shelves. Plaintiff had no contact with Legacy whatsoever. Plaintiff simply testified he thought Sneed had Legacy's authority to be on the premises. However, apparent authority does not depend on what a "third party chooses to think an agent has the right to do, or even upon what the agent says he can do, but must be based on acts of the principal which have led the third party to believe reasonably the agent had such authority."
Agency by Ratification
Finally, no agency relationship by ratification existed between Sneed and Legacy. "An agency relationship can ... be created by ratification, when a principal subsequently ratifies the acts of another in his behalf. For ratification to be effective, the principal must know of the agent's unauthorized act and, with full knowledge of all the material facts, accept and retain the benefits of the unauthorized act."
Scope of Authority
Even if this Court assumes a reasonable jury could find an agency relationship existed between Sneed and Legacy, the evidence unequivocally establishes Sneed acted outside the scope of his authority in allegedly inducing and allowing Plaintiff to dismantle the shelves. It is axiomatic that a principal is liable for the torts of his agent if committed within the scope of the principal's business. "Every person shall be liable for torts committed by his wife, his child, or his servant by his command or in the prosecution and within the scope of his business, whether the same are committed by negligence or voluntarily."
*1301Here, even assuming a reasonable jury could find Sneed acted as Legacy's agent in allowing Plaintiff to dismantle the shelves, Sneed's actions were plainly for his own benefit. Legacy did not authorize Sneed to hire, retain, induce, or permit anyone other than a Legacy employee to help him dismantle the shelves. Sneed asked Hodgson, "when do you think I can bring someone in to help me tear down racks, build walls and other miscellaneous stuff that need to be done[?]."
Plaintiff's Legal Status
Because no evidence shows Plaintiff, Johnson, and Sneed were on the property to conduct business with Legacy, but rather were there for Sneed's convenience, Plaintiff may be considered, at most, a licensee on Legacy's premises.
"The duty an owner owes to a licensee arises after the owner becomes aware of or should anticipate the presence of the licensee near the peril."
Legacy's Duty
An owner's "duty to a licensee is not to injure the licensee wantonly or willfully."
Here, there is not a scintilla of evidence Legacy acted willfully or wantonly to injure Plaintiff or anyone else. Legacy did not know Sneed, Johnson, and Plaintiff were on its premises dismantling the shelves. Legacy did not authorize Sneed to enlist a non-Legacy employee like Plaintiff to help him dismantle the shelves. Legacy had no knowledge of the ladder's existence. Moreover, no evidence indicates Legacy failed to exercise ordinary care to prevent injury to Plaintiff whom Legacy knew was "within the range of a dangerous activity on its premises."
Sneed's Breach of Duty
Finally, even if the evidence here supported a finding that Sneed invited *1303Plaintiff to Legacy's premises within his scope of authority as Legacy's agent, and thus Plaintiff was an invitee on Legacy's premises, no evidence supports a finding Sneed breached any duty owed to Plaintiff. Plaintiff argues Sneed breached his duty to warn Plaintiff of the danger that the vertical slats may fall and knock the ladder over. However, no evidence shows Sneed had superior knowledge of such danger or that any such danger was foreseeable. "The true ground of premises liability is a landowner's superior knowledge of [a] perilous condition and the danger therefrom to persons coming upon the property; it is when the perilous condition is known to the owner and not known to the person injured that a recovery is permitted."
Plaintiff argues Sneed had superior knowledge that the vertical slats would fall, and he should have known a falling vertical slat would topple the ladder Plaintiff was using. In support of his argument, Plaintiff points to testimony in which Sneed admits the vertical slats of the shelving would fall over when the horizontal slats were removed, and once the horizontal slats were removed, he used the forklift to support the vertical slats.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment [Doc. 28] is hereby GRANTED .
SO ORDERED , this 30th day of March, 2018.
Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c) ; see also Celotex Corp. v. Catrett ,
See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. ,
See
See
Celotex , 477 U.S. at 323,
See Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(e) ; see also Celotex , 477 U.S. at 324-26,
Avirgan v. Hull ,
Mize v. Jefferson City Bd. of Educ. ,
Food Lion, LLC v. Walker ,
Christensen v. Overseas Partners Capital, Inc. ,
See Tanner v. Larango ,
Hodgson Depo., p. 17 [Doc. 28-2]. Hodgson describes the lamination process as follows: "You put a cover on sheetrock and luan and some other forms of building materials that makes it look like wallpaper for sheetrock, or makes it look like word for-for molding. And that cover can be paper or vinyl. And it glues and wraps that cover onto the building materials."
Sneed Depo., pp. 17-18 [Doc. 28-3].
Id. at p. 19.
Hodgson Depo., p. 34 [Doc. 28-2].
Hodgson Depo., Ex. 7 [Doc. 28-2].
The Court will hereinafter refer to Plaintiff David Harrison as "Plaintiff."
Plaintiff Depo., p. 43 [Doc. 28-5].
Plaintiff Depo., pp. 46-47.
Plaintiff Depo., pp. 49-50.
Id. at p. 53.
Id. at pp. 55; 59.
Id. at p. 65.
Id. at p. 60.
Id. at p. 66.
Id. at p. 67.
Id. at p. 69.
Id. at p. 70.
Id. at p. 73.
Id. at p. 78.
Id. at pp. 94, 95.
Hodgson Depo., p. 48 [Doc. 28-2].
See Martin v. Ledbetter ,
O.C.G.A. § 51-3-1.
O.C.G.A. § 51-3-2(a).
Barber v. Steele ,
Southern Ry. Co. v. Duke ,
O.C.G.A. § 10-6-1 ("The relations of principal and agent arises wherever one person, expressly or by implication, authorizes another to act for him or subsequently ratifies the acts of another in his behalf.").
O.C.G.A. § 10-6-51.
Keefe v. Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning by Houndstooth, Inc. ,
Moss v. Central of Ga. R. Co. ,
Dunn v. Venture Bldg. Group, Inc. ,
Addley et al. v. Beizer ,
Dunn ,
J'Carpc, LLC v. Wilkins ,
O.C.G.A. § 10-6-52.
Hyer v. Citizens & S. Nat. Bank in Macon ,
O.C.G.A. § 51-2-2.
See, e.g., Hobbs v. Principal Fin. Group, Inc. ,
Hodgson Depo., Ex. 7 [Doc. 28-2].
Sneed Depo., p. 60 [Doc. 28-3]. Sneed testified that although the Legacy CEO was in a different building about a half of a mile from the warehouse where Plaintiff was injured, "nobody [at Legacy] knew we was at that plant."].
See Jones v. Barrow ,
Pl. Depo., p. 76 [Doc. 28-5].
Bartlett v. Maffett ,
Jarrell ,
Trulove v. Jones ,
Ellis v. Hadnott ,
Matlack v. Cobb Elec. Membership Corp. ,
Speaks v. Rouse Co. of Georgia ,
Glenn v. Gibbs ,
Sneed Depo., pp. 46, 52 [Doc. 28-3].
Id. at p. 87.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- David Shannon HARRISON and Courtney Gabrielle Harrison v. LEGACY HOUSING, LP, GPLH, LC and John Doe Corporations 1-3
- Status
- Published