Hanley v. State

• Decision Date: 19 December 2003
• Docket Number: No. 2002-535-Appeal.,2002-535-Appeal.
• Citation: 837 A.2d 707
• Parties: Virginia M. HANLEY et al. v. STATE of Rhode Island et al.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

837 A.2d 707

Virginia M. HANLEY et al. v. STATE of Rhode Island et al.

No. 2002-535-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

December 19, 2003.

Michael Kiselica, Warwick, for Plaintiff.

Michael P. Jolin, Providence, for Defendant.

Present: WILLIAMS, C.J., FLANDERS, GOLDBERG, FLAHERTY, and SUTTELL, JJ.

OPINION

PER CURIAM.

In this slip-and-fall case, the plaintiffs, Virginia M. Hanley (Virginia) and her husband, Robert C. Hanley (collectively, the plaintiffs), appeal from the grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants, the State of Rhode Island and John Does 1 through 10 (collectively, the state). Among the issues raised in the appeal is whether the so-called recreational use statute¹ grants immunity to the state when the alleged injury occurred within a state owned public park.

On August 3, 1998, plaintiffs were camping with their daughters at Fisherman's Memorial State Park in Narragansett, Rhode Island, when they were informed that they would be required to vacate their campsite the following morning. Wishing to extend their visit, Virginia and her daughters went to the park ranger's office that evening to inquire about the availability of another campsite. As they were returning to their campsite, Virginia caught her foot on a raised edge of the asphalt road in the park and fell, injuring her arm and shoulder. Thereafter, plaintiffs filed the instant action against the state, alleging that it had "negligently and carelessly designed, constructed, repaired, or built the portion of the roadway" thereby "directly and proximately causing plaintiffs injuries."² Thereafter, the state filed a motion for summary judgment in the Superior Court, urging that the recreational use statute granted it immunity from liability under the circumstances of this case. Following a hearing on the motion, judgment was entered in favor of the state and John Does 1-10. The plaintiffs timely appealed the judgment.

The plaintiffs contend that the summary judgment motion was not properly before the court because the state failed to raise the recreational use statute as an affirmative defense in its pleadings. Moreover, they assert that the purpose of enacting the recreational use statute was to immunize private property owners from liability when they make their lands available free of charge to the public for recreational purposes and that the hearing justice erred in extending that protection to preexisting state-owned public parks, particularly where the state negligently created the danger that caused their injuries. The plaintiffs further contend that even if the statute generally applies to public parks, it should not apply in the instant case because the fee that they paid to use the facilities constituted an exception to the statute.

"It is well settled that this Court reviews the granting of a summary judgment motion on a de novo basis." M & B Realty, Inc. v. Duval, 767 A.2d 60, 63 (R.I.2001) (citing Marr Scaffolding Co. v. Fairground Forms, Inc., 682 A.2d 455, 457 (R.I.1996)).

"`Only when a review of the admissible evidence viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party reveals no genuine issues of material fact, and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, will this Court uphold the trial justice's grant of summary judgment.' * * * [A] party who opposes a motion for summary judgment carries the burden of proving by competent evidence the existence of a disputed material issue of fact and cannot rest on allegations or denials in the pleadings or on conclusions or legal opinions.'" United Lending Corp. v. City of Providence, 827 A.2d 626, 631 (R.I.2003).

The applicability of G.L.1956 chapter 6 of title 32, the so-called recreational use statute, to state-owned land is an issue of first impression in this jurisdiction. However, before we address that question, first we must dispose of plaintiffs' contention that the issue was not properly raised as an affirmative defense below.

The state filed its motion for summary judgment on March 15, 2002, maintaining that the recreational use statute granted it immunity from liability for plaintiffs' injuries. In their response on July 3, 2002, plaintiffs asserted that the state had waived this issue because it failed to specifically raise its alleged immunity under the recreational use statute as an affirmative defense in its answer to the complaint. They further argued that even if the statute had been raised, it should not apply in the present case. After reviewing the record and hearing the arguments of counsel on July 16, 2002, the hearing justice granted the state's motion for summary judgment.

We have stated previously that "[w]e are governed by our more liberal [R]ules of [C]ivil [P]rocedure which `* * * shall be construed to secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action.'" Sarni v. Meloccaro, 113 R.I. 630, 636, 324 A.2d 648, 652 (1974) (quoting Rule 1 of the Superior Court Rules of Civil Procedure). We also have recognized that, provided that a party is not deprived "of his or her right to be fairly advised of a claim or defense relied on by the adverse party[,]" the Rules of Civil Procedure should be construed liberally. Gross v. School Committee of Glocester, 114 R.I. 358, 362, 333 A.2d 417, 419 (1975).

Rule 8(c) of the Superior Court Rules of Civil Procedure has been construed to mean that "the failure to raise an affirmative defense in a timely manner constitutes a waiver of that defense." World-Wide Computer Resources, Inc. v. Arthur Kaufman Sales Co., 615 A.2d 122, 124 (R.I.1992) (World-Wide) (citing LaBounty v. LaBounty, 497 A.2d 302, 305 (R.I.1985); Duquette v. Godbout, 416 A.2d 669, 670 (R.I.1980)). The rationale behind this construction is that "the special pleading of an affirmative defense protects the complaining party from unfair surprise at trial." Id. "[A] defense of immunity is an affirmative defense * * *." Brunelle v. Town of South Kingstown, 700 A.2d 1075, 1080 n. 3 (R.I.1997).

In an apparent conflict with the foregoing doctrine is our interpretation of Rule 15 of the Superior Court Rules of Civil Procedure. Rule 15 permits amendments to pleadings "to be allowed with great liberality absent a showing of extreme prejudice." World-Wide, 615 A.2d at 124 (citing Mikaelian v. Drug Abuse Unit, 501 A.2d 721, 722 (R.I.1985); Kuczer v. City of Woonsocket, 472 A.2d 300, 301 (R.I.1984)). "In resolving such a conflict, we must necessarily take into account such elements as the extent of prejudice, as well as the question of a defendant's knowledge of circumstances that should have alerted him or her to the existence of such a defense." Id.

In the instant matter, although the state did not cite to the recreational use statute in its answer to plaintiffs' complaint, it did assert immunity as an affirmative defense. Specifically, in its ninth affirmative defense, it maintained that:

"[t]o the extent that Defendant is not otherwise immune from liability, which is expressly denied, the monetary limitation on damages as set forth in Rhode Island General Laws 1956 (1985 Reenactment) § 9-31-1 et seq. applies to this action."

Keeping in mind that we should liberally construe the Rules of Civil Procedure and that we should not lightly infer any waiver of the state's immunity, and after reviewing the language of the state's ninth affirmative defense, we conclude that plaintiffs were fairly advised and protected from any possible unfair surprise at trial on the issue of the state's reliance on the general affirmative defense of immunity. Moreover, the record reveals that plaintiffs were given three month's notice of the state's specific reliance on the recreational use statute before the hearing on the summary judgment motion was conducted. Consequently, plaintiffs cannot demonstrate that they suffered any prejudice and the hearing justice did not err in finding that the state did not waive this immunity defense.

As the final arbiter of state law, we now must interpret the language of the recreational use statute to determine whether it affords immunity to state-owned public parks. We will do so on a de novo basis employing our familiar canons of statutory interpretation. See Martone v. Johnston School Committee, 824 A.2d 426, 431 (R.I. 2003)

.

"When construing a statute `our ultimate goal is to give effect to the purpose of the act as intended by the Legislature.'" Oliveira v. Lombardi, 794 A.2d 453, 457 (R.I.2002) (quoting Webster v. Perrotta, 774 A.2d 68, 75 (R.I.2001)). "It is well settled that when the language of a statute is clear and unambiguous, this Court must interpret the statute literally and must give the words of the statute their plain and ordinary meanings." Id. (quoting Accent Store Design, Inc. v. Marathon House, Inc., 674 A.2d 1223, 1226 (R.I.1996)). "Moreover, in interpreting a legislative enactment, it is incumbent upon us to `determine and effectuate the Legislature's intent and to attribute to the enactment the meaning most consistent with its policies or obvious purposes.'" Id (quoting Brennan v. Kirby, 529 A.2d 633, 637 (R.I.1987)). "In so doing, `[t]his Court will not construe a statute to reach an absurd result.'" Town of North Kingstown v. Albert, 767 A.2d 659, 662 (R.I.2001) (quoting State v. Flores, 714 A.2d 581, 583 (R.I.1998) and Kaya v. Partington, 681 A.2d 256, 261 (R.I.1996)).

In 1978, the Legislature enacted the recreation use statute. Its stated purpose is:

"to encourage owners of land to make land and water areas available to the public for recreational purposes by limiting their liability to persons entering thereon for those purposes." Section 32-6-1.

At the time of its enactment, the statute did not include the state and municipalities within its definition of an owner. However, in 1996, the Legislature explicitly added the state and municipalities to that definition, and now defines an owner as: "the private owner possessor of a fee interest, or...