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O'Dell v. Department Of Corrections5/30/2000
Appeal From: Circuit Court of St. Francois County, Hon. Stanley J. Murphy
Opinion Vote: AFFIRMED. Gaertner, P.J. and J. Dowd, J., concur.
Opinion:
Carolyn O'Dell, appellant, appeals from the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the Missouri Department of Corrections (MDOC), respondent, an agency of the State of Missouri charged with operation of prison facilities.
In her point on appeal she contends that the trial court erred in granting MDOC's motion for summary judgment because there were numerous disputes of fact in that the record demonstrated sufficient facts that she was injured due to a dangerous condition at the Farmington Correctional Center (FCC), a facility operated by respondent, caused by an act or omission of respondent's employees or a dangerous condition of which respondent knew or of which it had constructive notice. We affirm.
When considering an appeal from a summary judgment, we review the record in the light most favorable to the party against whom judgment was entered. ITT Commercial Fin. Corp. v. Mid-Am. Marine Supply Corp., 854 S.W.2d 371, 376 (Mo. banc 1993). Our review is essentially de novo. Id. The criteria on appeal for testing the propriety of summary judgment are identical to those the trial court employs to determine the propriety of sustaining the motion initially. Id. The burden on a summary judgment movant is to establish that there are no genuine issues of material fact and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Id. at 377.
A movant may establish a right to summary judgment by showing: (1) the facts that negate any one of the claimant's fact elements; (2) that the non-movant has not been able to produce, and will not be able to produce evidence sufficient to allow the trier of fact to find the existence of any one of claimant's elements; or (3) that there is no genuine dispute as to the existence of each of the facts necessary to support the movant's properly pleaded affirmative defense. Id. at 381.
Once a movant has met this burden established by Rule 74.04(c), the non-movant's only recourse is to show---by affidavit, depositions, answers to interrogatories or admissions on file---that one or more of the material facts shown by the movant to be undisputed is, in fact, genuinely disputed. Id. When analyzing the propriety of summary judgment, an issue is considered genuine only if it is real and substantial--not one consisting of "conjecture, theory and possibilities." ITT, 854 S.W.2d at 378.
The record, viewed in the light most favorable to appellant, reveals that on February 19, 1994 she visited her husband Denver, an inmate at FCC, in visiting room B. During her visit, she was injured by portions of ceiling tile which fell on her. A 2 x 4 foot ceiling tile had become saturated with moisture from a leaking steam pipe located above the tile. The tile crumbled and fell on appellant, hitting her head and left shoulder and caused her immediate pain in those areas. She noticed that the pieces of ceiling tile were water-stained and visibly wet.
After leaving the FCC the pain in her shoulder became worse as she drove home. Appellant then sought treatment later that day at Barnes-St. Peters Hospital. Since the date of the injury, she has undergone physical therapy and has been treated by several medical practitioners.
In October of 1998, appellant filed an Amended Petition containing three counts. Counts I and II sought relief from MDOC for her personal injuries from the ceiling tile and the contraction of tuberculosis, respectively. Count III sought relief from Correctional Medical Services (CMS) for appellant's co
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