Knapp v. Holiday Inns, Inc.

• Citation: 682 S.W.2d 936
• Decision Date: 11 October 1984
• Docket Number: No. 84-34-II,84-34-II
• Parties: Dennis L. KNAPP, Administrator of the Estate of David L. Knapp, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HOLIDAY INNS, INC. and Holiday Inn Nashville--North, Defendants and Third-Party Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Norman D. LANE, Third-Party Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: Court of Appeals of Tennessee

Page 936

682 S.W.2d 936

Dennis L. KNAPP, Administrator of the Estate of David L.

Knapp, Deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HOLIDAY INNS, INC. and Holiday Inn Nashville--North, Defendants and Third-Party Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Norman D. LANE, Third-Party Defendant-Appellee.

No. 84-34-II

Court of Appeals of Tennessee Middle Section.

Oct. 11, 1984.

Permission to Appeal Denied by

Supreme Court

Dec. 31, 1984.

Sidney Gilreath, Frances L. Ansley, Knoxville, for plaintiff-appellant.

Thomas M. Donnell, Jr., Stewart, Estes & Donnell, Nashville, for defendants and third-party plaintiffs-appellees.

Gayle Malone, Jr., Trabue, Sturdivant & DeWitt, Nashville, for third-party defendant-appellee.

OPINION

KOCH, Judge.

This is a wrongful death action predicated upon a common law dram shop cause of action similar to that recognized in Brookins v. The Round Table, Inc., 624 S.W.2d 547 (Tenn.1981) and Mitchell v. Ketner, 54 Tenn.App. 656, 393 S.W.2d 755 (1964). It was concluded prior to trial when the trial court granted a summary judgment for the defendant owner of the cocktail lounge where the person causing the fatal accident had been served alcoholic beverages immediately prior to the accident.

This case presents a unique situation in which the party seeking a summary judgment contends that it is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law because all available witnesses having direct and personal knowledge of the material facts have made statements favorable to the movant thereby precluding any possibility of a genuine dispute of material fact. In response, the opponent to the motion for summary judgment concedes that the statements of all available witnesses with direct knowledge of the facts are in the movant's favor. However, the opponent to the motion contends that a genuine and material factual dispute exists because the credibility of the defendant's witnesses and the weight to be given their testimony should not be decided at the summary judgment stage but should be resolved by the trier of fact at a trial on the merits.

For the reasons stated in this opinion, we find that granting a summary judgment was not appropriate in this case.

On December 3, 1982, Mr. Dennis L. Knapp, acting as the administrator of his son's estate, brought this action in the Sixth Circuit Court for Davidson County against Holiday Inns, Inc., the owner of a cocktail lounge named "Chuggers" located in the Holiday Inn Hotel in Nashville adjacent to I-65. In substance, the complaint alleged that employees of Chuggers lounge had illegally and negligently served alcoholic beverages to Mr. Norman D. Lane, a regular and frequent Chuggers patron, after he had reached an intoxicated condition. The complaint further alleged that immediately after leaving Chuggers, Mr. Lane caused an automobile accident on I-65 which resulted in David L. Knapp's death. The complaint concludes that Holiday Inn, Inc.'s negligence was the proximate cause of David L. Knapp's death.

Holiday Inns, Inc. moved for a summary judgment on October 25, 1983, contending (1) that the complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, (2) that it had committed no negligent act that was the proximate cause of the accident in which David L. Knapp was killed, and (3) that David L. Knapp's death resulted from independent and superceding causes over which Holiday Inns, Inc. had no control. In support of its contentions that there were no genuine factual issues and that it was entitled to a judgment as a matter of law, Holiday Inns, Inc. filed the deposition of Norman D. Lane, an affidavit of one of Mr. Lane's employees, an affidavit of one of Mr. Lane's former clients who was a cocktail waitress at Chuggers on the night David L. Knapp was killed, and affidavits from another waitress and the Food and Beverage Director of the hotel concerning Chuggers' general policy concerning serving alcoholic beverages.

In response to the motion for summary judgment, Mr. Knapp filed the affidavit of a Professor of Toxicology from the Indiana University School of Medicine and the affidavit of the Director of the Crime Laboratory of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation together with attached exhibits relating to the level of Mr. Lane's intoxication at the time the fatal accident occurred.

The trial court conducted a hearing on the motion for summary judgment on January 6, 1984. During this hearing both in briefs filed and during argument, Mr. Knapp challenged Holiday Inn, Inc.'s affidavits in support of the motion for summary judgment on the basis of bias and interest of the persons upon whose affidavits the motion for summary judgment was predicated. Likewise, Holiday Inns, Inc. challenged the competency of the affidavits submitted by Mr. Knapp. On January 9, 1984, an order was entered granting Holiday Inns, Inc. a summary judgment. ¹

The dispositive issue both in the trial court and in this appeal is whether there exists a genuine factual dispute concerning whether the employees of Chuggers served alcoholic beverages to Norman Lane when he was visibly intoxicated. This is a material issue because the owner or operator of an establishment selling alcoholic beverages by the drink to the public may only be held liable for injuries proximately caused by serving alcoholic beverages to a person who is visibly intoxicated at the time the alcoholic beverages are served. Brookins v. The Round Table, Inc., 624 S.W.2d 547, 550 (Tenn.1981) and Mitchell v. Ketner, 54 Tenn.App. 656, 666, 393 S.W.2d 755, 759 (1964). See also Tenn.Code Ann. Sec. 57-4-203(c).

Holiday Inns, Inc. sought to show definitively that Mr. Lane was not visibly intoxicated by relying on the deposition of Mr. Lane himself, the affidavits of one of Mr. Lane's former clients who was one of the cocktail waitresses at Chuggers who served Mr. Lane prior to the accident, and Mr. Lane's law clerk who talked with him by telephone while Mr. Lane was at Chuggers. ²

This proof shows that Mr. Lane began drinking at his law office during the afternoon of the day David Knapp was killed and that he drank more at his law office than he did while he was at Chuggers. He had nothing to eat that day because he was on a diet. While he could not remember when he left his law office, Mr. Lane remembered that he drove directly to Chuggers and that he arrived there some time prior to 6:30 p.m. He planned to stay there until the traffic congestion eased before continuing home. He did not remember how many drinks he was served while he was at Chuggers.

A waitress employed at Chuggers who was a former client and friend of Mr. Lane stated in an affidavit that she served him two drinks during happy hour before she left work at 7:00 p.m. and that Mr. Lane did not appear to be intoxicated when she saw him. Mr. Lane's law clerk stated in an affidavit that he called Mr. Lane at Chuggers at approximately 6:30 p.m. shortly after Mr. Lane arrived and that Mr. Lane did not sound intoxicated during that telephone conversation.

Mr. Lane recalled ordering another drink from another waitress before he left Chuggers, but by affidavit, this waitress had no independent recollection of Mr. Lane or that she ever served him as a customer at Chuggers.

When Mr. Lane left Chuggers at 8:00 p.m. hedrove onto I-65. He remembers being concerned about being arrested for driving while intoxicated immediately prior to the accident. Approximately ten minutes after leaving Chuggers, he mistook the gas pedal for the brake pedal and accelerated into the rear of the automobile ahead of him, drove across the highway's medial strip, and struck the automobile being driven by David Knapp head on.

Mr. Knapp was killed, and Mr. Lane was rendered unconscious and remained so for some time after the accident. A sample of Mr. Lane's blood was taken within an hour after the accident. It was subsequently analyzed by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's crime laboratory and was found to have a blood alcohol concentration of .23%. ³

Mr. Lane admitted in his pleadings that it was his negligence that caused David Knapp's death and that he was driving while intoxicated when the accident occurred.

The benefits of granting summary judgment in proper cases have been recognized repeatedly. Brookins v. The Round Table, Inc., 624 S.W.2d 547, 550 (Tenn.1981) and Ferguson v. Tomerlin, 656 S.W.2d 378, 382 (Tenn.App.1983). However, our courts have also been quick to point out that summary judgments should not be used as substitutes for trials on the merits when the material facts are in dispute, Jones v. Home Indemnity Insurance Co., 651 S.W.2d 213, 214 (Tenn.1983), or when there is uncertainty about whether the material facts are in dispute, Executone of Memphis, Inc. v. Garner, 650 S.W.2d 734, 736 (Tenn.1983) and Evco Corp. v. Ross, 528 S.W.2d 20, 25 (Tenn.1975), or even when the parties disagree about the inferences to be drawn from the facts. Prescott v. Adams, 627 S.W.2d 134, 138-39 (Tenn.App.1981).

The procedural requirements contained in Tenn.R.Civ.P. 56 used to consider a motion for summary judgment have also been reviewed on prior occasions and need no great elaboration here. Suffice it to say that the party moving for a summary judgment must first carry the burden of demonstrating that no genuine dispute involving material facts exists and that he is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. Tenn.R.Civ.P. 56.03. See also Phillips v. Pittsburgh Consolidated Coal Co., 541 S.W.2d 411, 413 (Tenn.1976) and Poppenheimer v. Bluff City Motor Homes, Division of Bluff City Buick Co., 658 S.W.2d 106, 110 (Tenn.App.1983). Once confronted with a motion for summary judgment, the opponent to the motion cannot take it lightly and is required to demonstrate why granting a motion for summary judgment would be inappropriate. In most instances, the opponent to a motion for summary judgment defeats the motion by demonstrating that genuine disputes concerning material facts exist. See Fowler v. Happy...