DON D. BUSH, Magistrate Judge.
Now before the Court is Plaintiff Elster Amco Water, LLC's Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt. 21). As set forth below, the Court recommends that the motion be
Plaintiff alleges that it sold and delivered to Defendant Datamatic certain products from October 28, 2011 through January 27, 2012 on an open account. The principal balance due is $770,348.95.
On or about January 25, 2013, Plaintiff filed suit in this Court against Defendant for the balance on the open account, plus pre-judgment and post-judgment interest, attorneys' fees and expenses. Defendant appeared in this action through counsel and filed its answer on June 4, 2013. On July 3, 2013, Plaintiff filed this Motion for Summary Judgment.
Summary judgment is appropriate when, viewing the evidence and all justifiable inferences in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
The party moving for summary judgment has the initial burden to prove there are no genuine issues of material fact for trial.
In response, the nonmovant's motion "may not rest upon mere allegations contained in the pleadings, but must set forth and support by summary judgment evidence specific facts showing the existence of a genuine issue for trial."
In its motion, Plaintiff argues that it is entitled to summary judgment against Datamatic for sums owed on the open account based on the evidence submitted, pleadings, itemized records and invoices, and affidavits. Plaintiff contends that the evidence establishes that there was an open account between it and Datamatic as demonstrated by the invoices and records of business transactions from October 28, 2011 through January 27, 2012, and that Datamatic has admitted that it accepted the products at issue and has not submitted payment to Plaintiff.
Plaintiff's motion was filed July 3, 2013. After no response was timely filed, on July 18, 2013, the Court entered an order stating that if no summary judgment response was filed by July 25, 2013, the Court would assume that Defendants did not oppose the relief requested by Plaintiff and proceed accordingly.
More importantly, Defendants have failed to file any summary judgment evidence whatsoever in this matter. Plaintiff, on the other hand, submits the following summary judgment evidence: Exhibit "A": Affidavit of John L. Southerland; Exhibit "B": Itemized invoices from October 28, 2011 through January 27, 2012 and three demand letters; Exhibit "C": Complaint filed by Elster in this lawsuit (the "Complaint"); Exhibit "D"; Answer filed by Datamatic in this lawsuit (the "Answer"); and Exhibit "E": Affidavit from Timothy P. Hurley, partner at Maginnis & Hurley, APLC.
Although Plaintiff does not have the ultimate burden on summary judgment, the Court finds that none of the evidence in the summary judgment record creates a genuine issue of material fact as to the claims here. The Court will not — and indeed is not required to — scour the record in this matter to determine whether Defendants could create a genuine issue of material fact as to Plaintiff's claims. The non-movants' burden in summary judgment proceedings is clear.
Therefore, Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt. 21) should be GRANTED and final summary judgment should be entered for Plaintiff as proposed (see Dkt. 21-6). In light of this recommendation, all pending deadlines are abated pending the District Judge's consideration of this report.
Within fourteen (14) days after service of the magistrate judge's report, any party may serve and file written objections to the findings and recommendations of the magistrate judge. 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(c).
Failure to file written objections to the proposed findings and recommendations contained in this report within fourteen days after service shall bar an aggrieved party from de novo review by the district court of the proposed findings and recommendations and from appellate review of factual findings accepted or adopted by the district court except on grounds of plain error or manifest injustice.