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Childs v. Purll9/8/2005
lling, that District of Columbia law does not impose strict liability on a landlord or its agents for leasing property in a hazardous condition, and that appellants' Consumer Protection Procedures Act claims are precluded because the Act is not applicable to landlord-tenant relations and does not authorize the award of damages for personal injuries of a tortious nature. The court further ruled that the individual Willoughby defendants could not be held personally liable to appellants, inasmuch as "their actions were no more than those of an employee of the corporation" and the evidence did not justify "piercing the corporate veil." Finally, the court ruled that there was no evidence of willful, reckless or malicious conduct such as would be necessary to support appellants' claims for punitive damages, and that District of Columbia law does not recognize a parent's cause of action for loss of services of a minor child.
On the same day the trial court issued its decision, appellants moved to late file their opposition to summary judgment, asserting without explanation that they had not met the extended filing deadline due to "inadvertence, excusable neglect and/or circumstances beyond Plaintiffs' control." The following week, appellants filed a supplemental motion asking the court to reconsider its order of summary judgment pursuant to Superior Court Civil Rules 59 and 60 (b). Appellants' counsel averred that he had been prevented from filing a timely opposition by "circumstances beyond his control," though he did not explain what those circumstances were.
The trial court treated the motion for reconsideration together with appellants' belated opposition to summary judgment as a request for relief under Rule 60 (b)(1) -- even though, the court stated, "plaintiffs' counsel has done little to explain why the opposition was filed two months after it was originally due and almost one month after the extension deadline expired" -- and denied the request on January 30, 2004. Adhering to its initial rulings, the court found that appellants still had demonstrated no genuine issues of material fact that would enable them to overcome the defendants' motions for summary judgment.
II.
In this court, appellants contend that the trial court erred in rejecting their negligence and Consumer Protection Procedures Act claims and their effort to hold Willoughby's owner and officers personally liable. Appellants do not challenge the trial court's other rulings on summary judgment.
"In reviewing a trial court's grant of summary judgment, we make an independent review of the record and employ the same standards as does the trial court in initially considering the motion." Croce v. Hall, 657 A.2d 307, 309-10 (D.C. 1995). We therefore must determine whether the party awarded summary judgment demonstrated that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. We view the record in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Settles v. Redstone Dev. Corp., 797 A.2d 692, 694 (D.C. 2002).
A. Negligence
"Generally, in order to prevail on a claim of negligence, the plaintiff must establish a duty of care, a deviation from that duty, and a causal relationship between that deviation and an injury sustained by the plaintiff." Youssef v. 3636 Corp., 777 A.2d 787, 792 (D.C. 2001). Issues of negligence frequently "are not susceptible of summary adjudication, but should be resolved by trial in the ordinary manner." Croce, 657 A.2d at 310 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).
"However, the question of whether a defendant owes a duty to a plaintiff under a particular set of circumstances
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