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569 P.2d 112

Timmons v. Reed

Wyoming Supreme Court

Decided September 13, 1977

Wyoming Supreme Court · decided 1977-09-13

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““It must be remembered that the burden is on the movant to demonstrate clearly that there was no genuine issue of material fact and that movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, [citations]. This is so regardless of which party would have the burden of proof at the trial, [citations]. If, however, the movant has adequately supported the motion to the point of demonstrating that the issue tendered by the opposing party is frivolous or a sham, [citations] then ‘a burden,’ [citations] is cast upon the opposing party to come forward as required by Rule 56(e), W.R.C.P.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including DeHerrera v. Memorial Hospital of Carbon County

Relies on Maxted v. Pacific Car & Foundry Company · Bluejacket v. Carney · Parker v. Heasler Plumbing & Heating Company

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1977-09-13

How this case has been cited

Cited by 36 later decisions — most recently May 1998 · most notably Bober v. New Mexico State Fair (1991), Brown v. Nebraska Public Power District (1981)

1 district · 35 state decisions

230197719801990decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

RAPER, Justice,

¶1specially concurring.

¶2I concur in the opinion of the court and in its result, with the exception I note.

¶3The only purpose of this special concurrence is to point out that while it has been loosely said by this court in Gilliland v. Steinhoefel, Wyo.1974, 521 P.2d 1350, by others, and now again, that summary judgments are not commonly interposed and even less frequently granted in negligence actions, the observation is not sound and should not discourage the use of the summary judgment technique in negligence actions, where appropriate. This court has sustained its grant in quite a number of negligence cases. Bluejacket v. Carney, Wyo.1976, 550 P.2d 494; Apperson v. Kay, Wyo.1976, 546 P.2d 995; Wells v. Jeep Corporation, Wyo.1975, 532 P.2d 595; Maxted v. Pacific Car & Foundry Company, Wyo. 1974, 527 P.2d 832; Clouser v. Spaniol Ford, Inc., Wyo.1974, 522 P.2d 1360; LeGrande v. Misner, Wyo.1971, 490 P.2d 1252; Parker v. Heasler Plumbing & Heating Company, Wyo.1964, 388 P.2d 516; Lieuallen v. Northern Utilities Company, Wyo.1962, 368 P.2d 949. There may be others but these are sufficient to make the point.

¶4We must not permit the viability of the summary judgment procedure to be weakened in any respect. The same standards apply to negligence actions as to any other action. If there is no genuine issue of fact and a party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, he should not be forced to trial. It is unnecessarily expensive and needlessly takes the valuable time of courts, litigants, witnesses and jurors. Rule 56(c), W.R.C.P. There is no exception with respect to negligence actions. They do lend themselves to summary judgment disposition, just as any other case.

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