THOMAS, Judge.
Clyde F. Helton, Jr., appeals from the Bibb Circuit Court's summary judgment in favor of Brent Belcher Properties, Ltd. ("Belcher Properties"), and Brent Belcher (hereinafter collectively referred to as "the defendants").
On June 16, 2006, Helton, an employee of Belcol Wood, Inc., was injured during the course of his employment when he fell through a skylight and suffered severe and permanent injuries. In a previous proceeding, Helton filed a workers' compensation action against Belcol Wood; the parties to that action reached a settlement agreement awarding Helton workers' compensation benefits. A general release of liability was included in the settlement agreement.
On June 16, 2008, Helton filed the present action against the defendants. Helton alleged that Belcher Properties owned the property upon which Helton had sustained his injuries, and he asserted that the defendants were negligent and/or wanton in failing to safeguard the property and that the defendants had "entered into certain contractual or indemnity agreements, to provide for assumption of liability for injuries sustained on the property," of which Helton is allegedly a third-party beneficiary, and had subsequently breached those agreements. On July 18, 2008, the defendants filed an answer.
On August 28, 2009, the defendants filed a motion for a summary judgment arguing that Helton's acceptance of workers' compensation benefits estopped him from resorting to any other remedy and that the defendants did not own, manage, lease, or maintain the property upon which Helton had sustained his injuries. The defendants attached to their summary-judgment motion the affidavit of Brent Belcher, vice president of Belcol Wood, stating that Belcol Wood leased and maintained the property upon which Helton sustained his injuries and that the defendants were not liable to Helton because they did not own, manage, lease, or maintain the property at the time Helton had sustained his injuries. The defendants' summary-judgment motion was set for a hearing to occur on November 5, 2009.
On November 3, 2009, Helton filed a response in opposition to the defendants' summary-judgment motion in which he argued that Belcher Properties did, in fact, own the subject property and that the defendants had failed to address his breach-of-contract claim. Attached to Helton's response were documents purporting to show that Belcher Properties owned the property upon which Helton had sustained his injuries. On November 4, 2009, the defendants filed a motion to supplement their summary-judgment motion with the affidavit of Patrick Matlock, a mapper for the Bibb County tax assessor/collector, and various other documents. Those documents indicated that Belcher Properties did not own the property upon which Helton had sustained his injuries on the date that Helton sustained his injuries.
On November 5, 2009, the circuit court entered a summary judgment in favor of the defendants on all claims, stating as follows:
On December 7, 2009, Helton filed a postjudgment motion to alter, amend, or vacate the circuit court's judgment, which was denied by operation of law. On April 19, 2010, Helton filed an appeal to this court. This court transferred his appeal to the supreme court for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, and that court transferred the appeal to this court pursuant to § 12-2-7(6), Ala.Code 1975.
Prince v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 804 So.2d 1102, 1103-04 (Ala.Civ.App.2001). Further, our supreme court has held that
Liberty Nat'l Life Ins. Co. v. University of Alabama Health Servs. Found., P.C., 881 So.2d 1013, 1020 (Ala.2003).
As the summary-judgement movants, the defendants had the initial burden of
The defendants' first argument in their summary-judgment motion was that Helton was estopped from suing them based on the exclusivity provisions of the Alabama Workers' Compensation Act, § 25-5-1 et seq., Ala.Code 1975. See §§ 25-5-52 and -53, Ala.Code 1975. It is undisputed that Helton received workers' compensation benefits from Belcol Wood for the injuries he sustained. However, the circuit court could not have properly granted a summary judgment in favor of the defendants on this ground because the defendants waived this affirmative defense
The only other argument that the defendants raised in their summary-judgment motion was that they did not own, manage, lease, or maintain the property upon which Helton had sustained his injuries and, thus, could not be liable to Helton.
In his complaint, Helton claimed that the defendants were negligent and/or wanton based on their alleged failure "to adequately safeguard [Helton] from falling through the unmarked skylights" and by "painting over or otherwise disguising said skylights or in failing to make the property reasonably safe." Vital to Helton's claim is that Belcher Properties owned, or the defendants otherwise had control of, the property upon which Helton had sustained his injuries.
The defendants supported their summary-judgment motion with Belcher's affidavit indicating that the defendants did not own, manage, lease, or maintain the property upon which Helton had sustained his injuries. Helton's response in opposition to the summary-judgment motion was supported with documents that he claimed reflected the results of a title search on the property upon which Helton had sustained his injuries. Helton alleges that the title-search documents created a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Belcher Properties owned the subject property at the time Helton sustained his injuries. The defendants filed a supplement to their summary-judgment motion; supported by the affidavit of Patrick Matlock, a mapper for the Bibb County tax assessor/collector since 1980; and accompanying documents indicating that the subject property was not owned by Belcher Properties on the date that Helton sustained his injuries.
In his brief on appeal, Helton argues that the circuit court "committed reversible error when it granted summary judgment for the [defendants] where they did not fully submit all evidence at least 10 days before the hearing on [their motion for a] summary judgment." However, because the circuit court granted the defendants' summary-judgment motion without
Regardless, Helton raises this argument for the first time on appeal. Helton failed to file a motion to strike the documents submitted in support of the defendants' November 4, 2009, supplement and failed to assert this argument in his motion to alter, amend, or vacate the circuit court's judgment. "It is well known that `we cannot reverse the judgment of the trial court based on an argument not made below and urged for the first time on appeal.'" White Sands Group, L.L.C. v. PRS II, LLC, 998 So.2d 1042, 1057 (Ala. 2008) (quoting Singleton v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 928 So.2d 280, 285 (Ala. 2005)).
Moreover, our supreme court addressed this issue in Peebles v. Mooresville Town Council, 985 So.2d 388 (Ala.2007). In Peebles, a town council filed a motion for a summary judgment in the trial court, to which Peebles and other plaintiffs ("the Peebles group"), the nonmovants, filed a brief in opposition. Only one day before the hearing on the summary-judgment motion, the town council filed a reply brief with supporting evidence. The Peebles group objected to the reply brief on the basis that
Peebles, 985 So.2d at 391. The trial court in Peebles took no action in response to the Peebles group's objection and granted the town council's summary-judgment motion. The Peebles group appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court.
Our supreme court held:
Peebles, 985 So.2d at 392.
In the present case, as in Peebles, Helton has failed to show how he was prejudiced by the circuit court's action. Therefore, Helton has not shown that this is a valid basis for reversing the circuit court's judgment.
There is no genuine issue of material fact concerning the defendants' ownership or control over the property upon which Helton had sustained his injuries, and, thus, we affirm the summary judgment as to Helton's claim of negligence and/or wantonness.
Also in his complaint, Helton claimed that the defendants had entered into indemnity agreements "to provide for assumption of liability for injuries sustained on the property made the basis of this lawsuit," that Helton was a third-party beneficiary of those agreements, and that the defendants had breached those agreements; the defendants did not address this claim in their summary-judgment motion. In their brief on appeal, the defendants argue that
However, the defendants' contention in their summary-judgment motion that they do not own, or otherwise control, the property upon which Helton had sustained his injuries has no bearing on Helton's claim that the defendants breached the alleged indemnity agreements. Our supreme court discussed the enforceability of agreements to indemnify for an indemnitee's own negligence in Holcim (US), Inc. v. Ohio Casualty Insurance Co., 38 So.3d 722 (Ala.2009), as follows:
A thorough review of the record reveals that the defendants failed to address Helton's claim that the defendants had breached the alleged indemnity agreements in their summary-judgment motion. The defendants failed to meet their burden by failing to make a prima facie showing that no genuine issue of material fact existed as to this claim. Therefore, we reverse the summary judgment as to Helton's breach-of-contract claim.
Based on the foregoing, we affirm the summary judgment as to Helton's negligence and/or wantonness claim; we reverse the summary judgment as to Helton's breach-of-contract claim, and we remand the cause for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
AFFIRMED IN PART; REVERSED IN PART; AND REMANDED.
THOMPSON, P.J., and PITTMAN, BRYAN, and MOORE, JJ., concur.