Prattville Memorial Chapel v. Parker

• Decision Date: 05 December 2008
• Docket Number: 1061756.
• Citation: 10 So.3d 546
• Parties: PRATTVILLE MEMORIAL CHAPEL and Memory Gardens, Inc. v. W.E. PARKER.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

10 So.3d 546

PRATTVILLE MEMORIAL CHAPEL and Memory Gardens, Inc. v. W.E. PARKER.

1061756.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

December 5, 2008.

Connie Ray Stockham and James M. Smith of Stockham, Carroll & Smith, P.C., Birmingham, for appellant.

Ted Taylor, Leah O. Taylor, and Rhonda Pitts Chambers of Taylor & Taylor, Birmingham, for appellee.

LYONS, Justice.

Prattville Memorial Chapel and Memory Gardens, Inc. ("Memorial Chapel"), appeals from a judgment entered on a jury verdict against it and in favor of W.E. Parker on Parker's claims alleging breach of contract and fraud. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

Procedural History

Parker sued Prattville Memory Gardens, Inc. ("PMG"), in the Autauga Circuit Court on January 27, 2005. Parker asserted claims of breach of contract and fraud arising from his purchase in 1976 of interment rights to 16 plots in PMG's cemetery. PMG filed a timely answer to the complaint, and the parties proceeded with discovery. Although not named as a party to Parker's action, Memorial Chapel, the current owner of the cemetery, which it purchased in 1993 from an entity that had purchased it from PMG, filed an answer to the complaint and a motion for a summary judgment on January 12, 2006. Subsequently, on February 1, 2006, Parker amended his complaint to name Memorial Chapel as a defendant. The trial court denied Memorial Chapel's motion for a summary judgment and its later renewed motion for a summary judgment.

Parker's claims were tried to a jury in March 2007. Pursuant to Rule 50(a), Ala. R. Civ. P., Memorial Chapel moved for a judgment as a matter of law ("JML") at the close of Parker's evidence and again at the close of all evidence. The trial court denied both motions, finding that Parker had presented sufficient evidence to submit his claims to the jury. Also at the close of all evidence, Parker moved for a JML on the issue whether Memorial Chapel was a continuation of PMG. Pursuant to that motion, and over Memorial Chapel's objection, the trial court held as a matter of law that Memorial Chapel was a continuation of PMG and that it had assumed PMG's liabilities and responsibilities.

Upon the trial court's determination that Memorial Chapel was a continuation of PMG and therefore that PMG and Memorial Chapel were one and the same entity, the case was submitted to the jury against only Memorial Chapel. On this rationale, the jury was never given the opportunity to return a verdict against PMG. The trial court's granting of Parker's motion for a JML as to successor liability left Memorial Chapel as the lone remaining defendant, and PMG was thereby dismissed from the action.

Attorneys for Parker and Memorial Chapel gave closing arguments; however, neither party asked the official court reporter to transcribe the arguments, and no transcription of the arguments was made. The trial court charged the jury; several of the charges were given over Memorial Chapel's objection. After deliberating, the jury returned a $30,000 compensatory-damages award against Memorial Chapel on Parker's breach-of-contract claim, a $50,000 compensatory-damages award against Memorial Chapel on Parker's fraud claim, and a $1,000,000 punitive-damages award against Memorial Chapel on Parker's fraud claim. The trial court entered a judgment on the jury's verdict.

Memorial Chapel moved to remit the compensatory-damages awards and for a hearing pursuant to § 6-11-23(b), Ala. Code 1975, Green Oil Co. v. Hornsby, 539 So.2d 218 (Ala.1989), and Hammond v. City of Gadsden, 493 So.2d 1374 (Ala. 1986), to determine whether the punitive-damages award was excessive. Memorial Chapel also renewed its motion for a JML pursuant to Rule 50(b), Ala. R. Civ. P., and alternatively moved for a new trial and to alter, amend, or vacate the judgment pursuant to Rule 59, Ala. R. Civ. P. Additionally, Memorial Chapel moved the trial court to authorize a transcription of the parties' closing arguments.

The trial court held a hearing on Memorial Chapel's postjudgment motions and received evidence on the motion for a remittitur. The trial court entered an order denying each of Memorial Chapel's postjudgment motions. Memorial Chapel then filed a timely notice of appeal.

Facts

At trial, the parties stipulated that in April 1976 a representative of PMG, Philip Gidiere, sold Parker interment rights to 16 grave sites in the cemetery owned by PMG for a total purchase price of $1,595. The parties also stipulated that Parker received a deed for the rights dated July 14, 1976. The parties did not stipulate to any other facts. Gidiere did not testify at trial, and the only evidence submitted to the jury regarding the events surrounding Parker's purchase of the interment rights in 1976 was Parker's testimony, a drawing, a written contract, and the July 14, 1976, deed.

Parker testified to the following facts: Parker was 71 years old at the time of trial. He first knew Gidiere in 1965 when he rented a house from Gidiere. Several times during the following years, Gidiere asked Parker to purchase interment rights in PMG's cemetery; however, Parker declined. In the spring of 1976, Gidiere offered Parker what Gidiere called an "estate plot" in the cemetery. Parker and Gidiere went to the cemetery, where Gidiere showed Parker a specific plot, later identified as lot no. 60, in an undeveloped part of the cemetery. Without objection from Memorial Gardens, Parker testified regarding Gidiere's description of what Parker would receive if he purchased the estate plot. Gidiere stated that Parker's estate plot would be bordered by plants along the edge of the cemetery and between adjoining estate plots. Gidiere told Parker that the estate plot would have a 4-foot walkway down the center with a total of 16 graves, 2 rows of 4 graves on each side of the walkway. Gidiere also told Parker that the estate plot would have sections for plants, family markers, individual markers, and a bench. Gidiere advised Parker that his family could choose whether to have plants on either side of the estate plot and along the walkway.

Parker submitted a drawing into evidence, which he testified Gidiere gave him shortly after their visit to the cemetery ("the drawing"). The drawing is not dated; however, it matches Parker's testimony regarding Gidiere's description of the estate plot. According to the drawing, the center walkway was to be 4 feet wide, and each interment space was to be 3 feet 9 inches by 10 feet. During cross-examination, Memorial Chapel's attorney asked: "Well, Philip Gidiere told you your plots were going to look like [the drawing], didn't he?" Parker answered: "Correct." Parker testified that based on the drawing and on Gidiere's description, he decided to purchase the estate plot, and he paid $1,595 for it.

Parker testified that after he paid for the estate plot, Gidiere delivered a written contract ("the contract") to him. In response to questions asked by Memorial Chapel's attorney during cross-examination, Parker testified that he owned the estate plot before he received any written contract from PMG. The contract, dated April 14, 1976, identified Parker as the purchaser and PMG as the seller of interment rights to 16 spaces in lot no. 60 in a part of the cemetery referred to as the Garden of Devotion.¹ The contract identified Prim Parker as Parker's wife, but not as a purchaser. It stated a purchase price of $1,595. The contract did not specify that Parker was to receive an estate plot, nor did it describe the walkway, plants, and other features shown in the drawing. The contract provided that Parker would receive a deed for the interment rights and that Parker would "comply at all times with all Rules and Regulations heretofore or hereafter promulgated and adopted for the operation, care, and control of said Prattville Memory Gardens." The contract also contained the following paragraphs:

"9. Entire Agreement: This instrument represents the entire agreement of the parties hereto, and shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of heirs, next of kin, personal representatives, successors and assigns of the parties.

"10. PURCHASER CERTIFIES THAT NO ORAL OR WRITTEN STATEMENTS, PROMISES, REPRESENTATIONS OR GUARANTEES OTHER THAN THOSE CONTAINED HEREIN HAVE BEEN MADE BY SELLER, ITS AGENTS, SERVANTS, OR EMPLOYEES, WITH REFERENCE TO CARE AND MAINTENANCE OF THE SAID PLOT OR PRATTVILLE MEMORY GARDENS, OR OTHERWISE IN RELATION TO THIS AGREEMENT."

(Capitalization in original.) Gidiere signed the contract on behalf of PMG.

Parker subsequently received a deed dated July 14, 1976, that granted interment rights in the 16 spaces in lot no. 60 in PMG's Garden of Devotion to "Dr. W.E. Parker and/or Prim H. Parker (wife)." As was the case with the contract, the deed did not specify that Parker was to receive an estate plot, nor did it describe the walkway, plants, and other features shown in the drawing. Also as was the case with the contract, the deed provided that it was "subject to the Rules and Regulations now in effect, or which may hereafter be adopted or enacted for the control, regulation, and government of said cemetery." The deed provided that those rules and regulations were "on file for inspection in the office of [PMG]" and were incorporated by reference.

Parker did not sign the contract or the deed. He testified that he did not sign anything with respect to his purchase. Without objection from Memorial Gardens, Parker's attorney asked: "[W]hat paper describes your agreement with that cemetery?" and Parker answered: "They didn't have one. I had his [Gidiere's] word and his description, and the drawing, to back it up. That's what he told me."

After Parker received the deed, he and his wife, Prim, divorced. Parker testified that, after the divorce, Prim had no interest in the estate plot and she would not be buried there. The parties did not submit any other evidence regarding Prim's interest, or lack thereof, in the estate plot.

As of the date...