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Bryant v. Robledo6/30/2005
ng the time pertinent to their action. Moreover, the Bryants asserted that the Robledos had asked James Bryant to represent Nave in a conservatorship proceeding filed in Tennessee and that the Robledos had agreed to send $15,000 on behalf of Nave; based on those alleged facts, the Bryants contended that the Robledos' assertion of fraud was totally unfounded. In an affidavit accompanying the Bryants' summary-judgment motion, Beth Bryant stated that although she had worked for a time as a bookkeeper in her husband's law firm, she was not a lawyer and had only had brief social contacts with the Robledos.
The trial court granted the Robledos' summary-judgment motion in part and entered a partial judgment on September 18, 2003. In that judgment, the trial court ordered the Bryants to pay the Robledos $15,000 plus interest in the amount of $7,950.64 on the basis of fraud and breach of contract; the conversion claim was held over for a subsequent jury trial. On January 6, 2004, the Robledos filed a motion to dismiss the remaining count of conversion and requested that the trial court enter a Rule 54(b), Ala. R. Civ. P., order to establish the finality of the September 2003 judgment. Instead, the trial court entered an order on February 9, 2004, dismissing the case because "there are no remaining issues."
On appeal, the Bryants assert that the trial court abused its discretion in entering a judgment in favor of the Robledos because, they say, (1) the Robledos did not have standing to sue the Bryants; (2) the requests for admissions were outside the scope of Rule 36, Ala. R. Civ. P.; (3) the Robledos' summary-judgment motion was not supported by any affidavits or other legal evidence; and (4) the Bryants were entitled to a summary judgment in their favor because they proved that the Robledos could not recover under any legal theory.
Before turning to the consideration of the general legal arguments raised by the Bryants, we feel it is appropriate to address the Robledos' claims against Beth Bryant separately. The admissions directed to Beth Bryant, regardless of whether they were correctly deemed admitted or not, all center on fraud and breach-of-contract issues. Those admissions may be summarized as follows: Beth Bryant worked as a bookkeeper or office manager for the law firm in which James Bryant was a partner, and she regularly had occasion to write checks on the law firm's various accounts to pay monthly bills, salaries, and other expenses. During the time pertinent to the Robledos' action, Beth Bryant wrote several checks to pay law-firm bills from the account containing the Robledos' $15,000; at least $11,000 of that amount was paid to James Bryant, and that amount was eventually deposited into his personal checking, saving, or investment accounts; at least one of those accounts was also held in her name as his wife.
While those admissions might support a claim of conversion, they do not support either of the two claims upon which the partial summary judgment in favor of the Robledos was based: breach of contract or fraud. None of those admissions established the fact that Beth Bryant promised to provide legal services or entered into any negotiation or contract with the Robledos regarding her provision of legal services. In addition, none of those admissions indicates actions by Beth Bryant that constitute misrepresentation or fraudulent inducement that could form the basis of a viable fraud claim. At most, the requests for admissions relating to Beth Bryant may have tended to prove elements of the tort of conversion, but nothing more. Although the Robledos did assert such a claim, they voluntarily withdrew their conversion claim against the Bryants after the trial court g
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