Luhnow v. Horn

• Decision Date: 20 December 2001
• Docket Number: No. 25A05-0106-CV-241.,25A05-0106-CV-241.
• Parties: Douglas and Beth LUHNOW, et al., Appellants-Plaintiffs, v. Eugene HORN, Donald R. Towne, Fulton County Surveyor, Steve Hartzler, Ron Jana and Art Showley, Commissioners, as Members, Fulton County Drainage Board, et al., Appellees-Defendants.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

760 N.E.2d 621

Douglas and Beth LUHNOW, et al., Appellants-Plaintiffs, v. Eugene HORN, Donald R. Towne, Fulton County Surveyor, Steve Hartzler, Ron Jana and Art Showley, Commissioners, as Members, Fulton County Drainage Board, et al., Appellees-Defendants.

No. 25A05-0106-CV-241.

Court of Appeals of Indiana.

December 20, 2001.

Jere L. Humphrey, Kizer & Neu, Plymouth, Indiana, Attorney for Appellant.

Dane L. Tubergen, Hunt Suedhoff Kalamaros, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Attorney for Appellee.

OPINION

SHARPNACK, Chief Judge.

Douglas and Beth Luhnow (collectively, the "Luhnows")¹ appeal the trial court's grant of Eugene Horn's motion for summary judgment. The Luhnows raise two issues, which we expand and restate as:

1. Whether the law-of-the-case doctrine precluded the trial court from granting Horn's motion for summary judgment;

2. Whether the trial court erred by granting Horn's motion for summary judgment because the Luhnows are entitled as third-party beneficiaries to enforce the contract between the Fulton County Drainage Board ("Drainage Board") and Horn; and

3. Whether the trial court erred by granting Horn's motion for summary judgment on the Luhnows' claim of nuisance.

We affirm.

The facts most favorable to the Luhnows follow. The Luhnows own property in Fulton County that is drained by the Starr Tile Drain ("Starr Drain") and the Troutman Hogan Tile Drain ("Troutman Drain"). On May 13, 1996, the Drainage Board entered into a contract with Horn to replace the tile on the Starr and Troutman Drains, and the Luhnows were assessed for the replacements. After Horn's reconstruction of the drains, the Luhnows experienced a standing-water problem on their property.

The Luhnows filed a complaint against Horn that asserted two causes of action.² First, the Luhnows alleged that they were third-party beneficiaries to the contract between the Drainage Board and Horn and that Horn breached the contract by failing to install the tile on the Starr and Troutman Drains in a good and workmanlike manner. Second, the Luhnows alleged that Horn's work created a standing-water problem on their property that is a nuisance as defined by Ind.Code § 34-1-52-1.

In response to the Luhnows' complaint, Horn filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings pursuant to Ind. Trial Rule 12(C), or, in the alternative, a motion for summary judgment. Neither party submitted evidence in addition to the averments in the pleadings, nor relied upon matters outside the pleadings, at the hearing on Horn's motion for judgment on the pleadings. Accordingly, the trial court treated Horn's motion solely as a judgment on the pleadings pursuant to Ind. Trial Rule 12(C). The trial court then granted Horn's motion for judgment on the pleadings. In a prior appeal, we reversed. See Luhnow v. Horn, No. 25A04-0005-CV-190, mem. op. at 7, 736 N.E.2d 832 (Ind.Ct.App. October 13, 2000). Subsequently, Horn filed a motion for summary judgment, and the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Horn. A trial court's grant of summary judgment is "clothed with a presumption of validity." Rosi v. Business Furniture Corp., 615 N.E.2d 431, 434 (Ind.1993). On review of a trial court's decision to grant or deny summary judgment, we apply the same standard as the trial court: we must decide whether there is a genuine issue of material fact that precludes summary judgment and whether the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Carie v. PSI Energy, Inc., 715 N.E.2d 853, 855 (Ind.1999). Once the moving party has sustained its initial burden of proving the absence of a genuine issue of material fact and the appropriateness of judgment as a matter of law, the party opposing summary judgment must respond by designating specific facts establishing a genuine issue for trial. Stephenson v. Ledbetter, 596 N.E.2d 1369, 1371 (Ind.1992). We may consider only those portions of the pleadings, depositions, and any other matters specifically designated to the trial court by the parties for purposes of the motion for summary judgment. Ind. Trial Rule 56(C), (H). Any doubt as to the existence of an issue of material fact, or an inference to be drawn from the facts, must be resolved in favor of the nonmoving party. Cowe v. Forum Group, Inc., 575 N.E.2d 630, 633 (Ind.1991). Although the nonmovant has the burden of demonstrating that the grant of summary judgment was erroneous, we carefully assess the trial court's decision to ensure that the nonmovant was not improperly denied his day in court. Colonial Penn Ins. Co. v. Guzorek, 690 N.E.2d 664, 667 (Ind.1997).

I.

The first issue is whether the law-of-the-case doctrine precluded the trial court from granting Horn's motion for summary judgment. The Luhnows argue that the law-of-the-case doctrine prohibited the trial court from granting Horn's motion for summary judgment because we had previously determined, based upon essentially the same evidence, that "we [could not] say that the Luhnows could not succeed on either their third-party beneficiary or nuisance claims." Luhnow, mem. op. at 7.

The law-of-the-case doctrine provides that an appellate court's determination of a legal issue binds both the trial court and the court on appeal in any subsequent appeal involving the same case and substantially the same facts. Cha v. Warnick, 476 N.E.2d 109, 114 (Ind.1985), reh'g denied, cert. denied, 474 U.S. 920, 106 S.Ct. 249, 88 L.Ed.2d 257 (1985). The purpose of the doctrine is to minimize unnecessary relitigation of legal issues once they have been resolved by an appellate court. State v. Huffman, 643 N.E.2d 899, 901 (Ind.1994), reh'g denied; see also St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Ctrs., Inc. v. Ho, 663 N.E.2d 1220, 1223 (Ind.Ct.App. 1996)

. Accordingly, under the law-of-the-case doctrine, relitigation is barred for all issues decided "directly or by implication in a prior decision." Certain Northeast Annexation Area Landowners v. City of Fort Wayne, 622 N.E.2d 548, 549 (Ind.Ct. App.1993),

reh'g denied, trans. denied. However, where new facts are elicited upon remand which materially affect the questions at issue, the court upon remand may apply the law to the new facts as subsequently found. Fair Share Org., Inc. v. Mitnick, 245 Ind. 324, 327, 198 N.E.2d 765, 766 (Ind.1964), cert. denied, 379 U.S. 843, 85 S.Ct. 82, 13 L.Ed.2d 48 (1964).

Our previous review of this case concerned an appeal from the trial court's grant of judgment on the pleadings in favor of Horn. See Luhnow, mem. op. at 2-7. In brief, the trial court granted Horn's motion for judgment on the pleadings, pursuant to Ind. Trial Rule 12(C), because it found that: (1) "the pleadings clearly disclose that the [Luhnows] are not third-party beneficiaries of the contract..." between the Drainage Board and Horn; and (2) recovery in Count II of the Luhnows' complaint is based upon the nuisance doctrine which is inapplicable to surface water cases. Appellants' Appendix at 73-74. We reversed the trial court's judgment because we could not say, based solely upon the allegations in the complaint pursuant to Ind. Trial Rule 12(C), that the Luhnows' third-party beneficiary or nuisance claims would fail. Luhnow, mem. op. at 5, 7.

Initially, we observe that the standards of review for judgment on the pleadings pursuant to Ind. Trial Rule 12(C) and summary judgment under Ind. Trial Rule 56(C) are quite different.³ A judgment on the pleadings pursuant to Ind. Trial Rule 12(C) attacks the legal sufficiency of the pleadings. National R.R. Passenger Corp. v. Everton By Everton, 655 N.E.2d 360, 363 (Ind.Ct.App. 1995), trans. denied. When we consider a motion for judgment on the pleadings, we deem the moving party to have admitted "all facts well pleaded, and the untruth of his own allegations which have been denied." New Trend Beauty School, Inc. v. Indiana State Bd. of Beauty Culturist Examiners, 518 N.E.2d 1101, 1103 (Ind.Ct. App.1988). All reasonable inferences are drawn in favor of the nonmoving party and against the movant. National, 655 N.E.2d at 363. Like an Ind. Trial Rule 12(B)(6) motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, a motion for judgment on the pleadings should be granted only when it is clear from the face of the complaint that under no circumstances could relief be granted. Id. By contrast, when reviewing a grant or denial of summary judgment, we consider, in addition to the pleadings, a variety of designated materials such as affidavits, interrogatories, and depositions. Ind. Trial Rule 56(C), (H). Moreover, in the summary judgment context, once the moving party alleges that there are no genuine issues of material fact and that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, we require the nonmovant to set forth specific facts establishing a genuine issue of material fact and forbid the nonmovant from resting solely on the pleadings. Mullin v. Municipal City of South Bend, 639 N.E.2d 278, 281 (Ind.1994).

A.

First, the Luhnows argue that the law-of-the-case doctrine precluded the trial court from granting Horn's motion for summary judgment regarding the Luhnows' status as third-party beneficiaries of the contract between the Drainage Board and Horn. When we previously reversed the trial court's grant of judgment on the pleadings in favor of Horn on the issue of whether the Luhnows were third-party beneficiaries, we did not consider the merits of the Luhnows' complaint. Rather, because we were constrained by Ind. Trial Rule 12(C), we reviewed solely the pleadings and accepted all well-pleaded facts as true. In so doing, we observed that:

In their complaint, the Luhnows stated that they "were third party beneficiaries of the contract entered into between [the Drainage Board] and [Horn]." ... By moving for judgment on the pleadings, Horn is deemed to have admitted that fact to be in favor of the Luhnows and the trial court was required to construe that fact in the Luhnows' favor. Whether or not the Luhnows actually...