GENOVESE, Judge.
Plaintiff, Glenn M. Broussard, appeals the trial court's grant of summary judgment dismissing his uninsured/underinsured motorist insurance (UM) claim against Farmers Texas County Mutual Insurance Company (Farmers). For the following reasons, we reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand this matter for further proceedings.
The instant litigation arises out of an automobile accident which occurred on February 25, 2010, between an automobile being operated by Mr. Broussard and an automobile owned and being operated by Ms. Phyllis Winters. Initially, Mr. Broussard filed suit against Ms. Winters and her automobile liability insurance carrier, Progressive Security Insurance Company (Progressive). According to the lawsuit, Mr. Broussard was in the process of making a left turn while driving a 2000 Volvo 54000 commercial truck owned by his employer, Waste Management of Louisiana, LLC, when he was struck by Ms. Winters as she attempted to pass his vehicle.
Mr. Broussard amended his petition in January 2011, adding Farmers as a defendant and alleging that "there was in full force and effect a policy of uninsured/underinsured coverage issued to [him.]" According to Mr. Broussard, at the time of his automobile accident with Ms. Winters,
Farmers answered Mr. Broussard's lawsuit in March 2011, denying UM coverage. On September 15, 2011, Farmers filed a motion for summary judgment, seeking a dismissal of Mr. Broussard's claim on the grounds that its policy did not provide UM coverage to him. Farmers acknowledged issuing a policy of insurance to Ms. Cormier; however, Farmers denied ever issuing a policy of insurance to Mr. Broussard and denied that he was insured under the terms and conditions of Ms. Cormier's UM policy.
On January 26, 2012, Mr. Broussard filed a motion to compel against Farmers, seeking answers to outstanding interrogatories and requests for production of documents. Thereafter, Mr. Broussard filed his memorandum in opposition to Farmers' motion for summary judgment on February 28, 2012.
Both Farmers' motion for summary judgment and Mr. Broussard's motion to compel were set for hearing on June 28, 2012. At the hearing, Farmers requested that the trial court allow additional briefing on the issue of UM coverage, specifically as to whether the second circuit's holding in Lemoine v. Illinois National Insurance Company, 38,237 (La.App. 2 Cir. 3/12/04), 868 So.2d 304, writs denied, 04-904, 04-926 (La.6/4/04), 876 So.2d 86, 87, applied to the facts and circumstances of this case. The trial court agreed to take the matter under advisement and ordered that the parties submit supplemental memoranda relative to both Farmers' motion for summary judgment and Mr. Broussard's motion to compel.
On November 5, 2012, the trial court issued its reasons for judgment wherein it granted Farmers' summary judgment, but did not address Mr. Broussard's motion for compel. A judgment dismissing Mr. Broussard's suit against Farmers was signed by the trial court the same day. Mr. Broussard has appealed this judgment.
In his appeal, Mr. Broussard asserts the following assignments of error:
On appeal, Mr. Broussard asserts that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment both procedurally and substantively. Procedurally, he contends that the trial court erred because there was a pending motion to compel discovery upon which the trial court failed to rule. Substantively, he contends that summary judgment was improper because there are questions of material fact as to the definition of
According to Mr. Broussard, in an effort to oppose Farmers' motion for summary judgment, he served supplemental interrogatories and requests for production of documents upon Farmers in December of 2011. The record establishes that on January 23, 2012, Mr. Broussard filed a petition for letters rogatory and served Farmers' with a notice of his intent to depose its corporate representative pursuant to La. Code Civ.P. art. 1442. Mr. Broussard filed a motion to compel discovery against Farmers on January 26, 2012, after not receiving responses to his discovery requests. In his memorandum in opposition to Farmers' motion for summary judgment, filed on February 28, 2012, Mr. Broussard reiterated that the discovery responses he seeks are pertinent to the determination of whether the terms of Farmers' policy afford UM coverage to him under the particular facts and circumstances of this case.
Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Article 966 (emphasis added) provides, in pertinent part:
A motion for summary judgment shall be granted only after
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the trial court is reversed, and this matter is remanded to the trial court to allow adequate discovery prior to a ruling on the motion for summary judgment. Costs are assessed to Defendant/Appellee, Farmers Texas County Mutual Insurance Company.