Hines v. Garrett

Summary

Reviewing de novo the lower courts' grants of summary judgment for the defendant cattle owner, the Supreme Court of Louisiana held that La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 966(C)(2)'s burden-shifting provision does not apply where the movant will bear the burden of proof at trial — here, rebutting the stock-law presumption of negligence under La. Rev. Stat. 3:2803 — and that the general rule accepting an affiant's testimony as true yields where the movant's self-serving testimony contains substantive contradictions, making his credibility a genuine issue of material fact better resolved at trial. Because the defendant gave conflicting deposition accounts of the fallen tree's location and disposed of the tree after the accident, the court found the plaintiffs had adequately challenged his credibility and denied summary judgment, reversing and remanding. Justice Traylor dissented, preferring to deny the writ.