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Oliver v. Stimson Lumber Co.12/22/1999
which contains any allegation of wrongdoing on the part of Liberty Northwest. As a result, the District Court granted summary judgment in favor of Liberty Northwest.
The Olivers stated the following purported basis for their claim against Liberty Northwest:
In recent depositions and in pleadings, Stimson contends that certain correspondence from the Plaintiffs' attorney, specifically Exhibit B, the May~24 correspondence from Plaintiffs' attorneys to . . . the attorney for Stimson, was never received by Stimson, even though it was received by [the attorney] and Liberty Northwest. Therefore, since the tort of spoliation in the context of a third-party claim emanating from a workers' compensation claim is undecided in Montana, the status of Liberty Northwest and the potential independent culpability of Liberty Northwest necessitates that Liberty Northwest be brought in as a party to this litigation for determination of the culpability, if any, in the Plaintiffs' litigation seeking redress for Stimson's spoilation of evidence.
In this regard, the District Court stated that the Olivers' claims against Liberty Northwest were at a minimum dependent upon the success of the Olivers' claims against Stimson and proof that Liberty Northwest's agents were also acting as actual or ostensible agents for Stimson as it relates to shuffling correspondence between the Olivers' counsel, Liberty Northwest's actual agents, and Stimson's actual agents during the days following Mr. Oliver's accident.
It is the burden of the plaintiff to adequately plead a cause of action. See Ryan v. City of Bozeman (1996), 279 Mont. 507, 512, 928 P.2d 228, 231. In addition, we have stated that a complaint is sufficient if it concisely states facts upon which relief can be granted upon any legally sustainable basis. However, with this premise in mind, we emphasized that:
complaint must state something more than facts which, at the most, would breed only a suspicion that plaintiffs have a right to relief. Liberality does not go so far as to excuse omission of that which is material and necessary in order to entitle relief. Ryan, 279 Mont. at 512, 928 P.2d at 231 (citation omitted).
With regard to Liberty Northwest, the Olivers have failed to meet their burden. The Olivers have failed to concisely state facts upon which relief could be granted in relation to their claims for spoliation of evidence against Liberty Northwest. Therefore, we conclude that the District Court did not err in granting summary judgment in favor of Liberty Northwest.
Accordingly, we affirm in part and reverse in part the decision of the District Court. We affirm the District Court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Liberty Northwest and the District Court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the Defendants with regard to the Olivers' claim for intentional spoliation of evidence. We reverse the District Court's conclusion that the exclusivity provisions of the Montana Workers' Compensation Act bar the Olivers' claims against Mr. Oliver's employer for spoliation of evidence and the District Court's grant of summary judgment in favor Stimson with regard to the Olivers' claim for negligent spoliation of evidence. In light of our decision to recognize the tort of negligent spoliation of evidence as an independent cause of action against third parties who destroy evidence, we remand this cause to the District Court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
JIM REGNIER
We Concur:
J. A. TURNAGE
JAMES C. NELSON
TERRY N. TRIEWEILER
WILLIAM E. HUNT, SR.
W. WILLIAM LEAPHART<
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