Dresher v. Burt

Douglas, J.

The sole issue in this appeal involves the standards for granting summary judgment when the moving party asserts that the nonmoving party has no evidence to establish an essential element of the nonmoving party’s case. In particular, the issue certified to this court by the Court of Appeals for Montgomery County is, “[m]ay a court grant summary judgment when neither the movant nor the non-movant provides evidentiary materials demonstrating that there are no material facts in dispute and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law?” (Emphasis sic.) Resolution of this issue requires an interpretation of Civ.R. 56, a detailed review of Celotex, supra, 477 U.S. 317, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265, and an examination of our holding in paragraph three of the syllabus in Wing, supra, 59 Ohio St.3d 108, 570 N.E.2d 1095.

In Celotex, supra, 477 U.S. 317, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265, Myrtle Catrett (“Catrett”), administrator of the estate of her deceased husband, Louis H. Catrett, filed a wrongful death action in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against fifteen named corporations. In the complaint, Catrett alleged that her husband’s death had been caused by exposure to products containing asbestos that had been manufactured or distributed by the defendants. Several of the defendants, including the Celotex Corporation (“Celo-tex”), filed motions for summary judgment. In support of its motion, Celotex argued that summary judgment was proper because Catrett had “ ‘failed to produce evidence that any [Celotex] product * * * was the proximate cause of the injuries alleged within the jurisdictional limits of [the District] Court.’ ” Id. at 319-320, 106 S.Ct. at 2551, 91 L.Ed.2d at 272. In particular, Celotex noted that Catrett had failed to identify, in answering interrogatories specifically requesting such information, any witnesses who could testify about the decedent’s exposure to Celotex’s asbestos products. Catrett responded to the motion for summary judgment and produced three documents to counter Celotex’s assertions. The three documents included a transcript of a deposition, a letter from an official of one of the decedent’s former employers whom Catrett planned to call as a witness at trial, and a letter from an insurance company to Catrett’s attorney. These documents tended to establish that the decedent had been exposed to Celotex’s asbestos products in Chicago in 1970 and 1971. Catrett claimed that the three documents demonstrated that there was a genuine and material factual [*286] dispute concerning the decedent’s exposure to Celotex’s asbestos products. With respect to this evidence, Celotex asserted that the three documents were inadmissible hearsay and thus could not be considered in opposition to Celotex’s motion for summary judgment.