Mid-Century Ins. Co. v. Stites

Citations

• 2021 Ohio 3839

Syllabus

NEGLIGENCE—CIV.R. 56(C)—PROXIMATE CAUSE—JOINT ENTERPRISE: In an action brought by plaintiff to recover damages for a fire that occurred in an apartment, the trial court did not err in granting summary judgment in favor of defendant, one of four people who had been smoking on the apartment's balcony, where it would be equally possible, based on the evidence presented, to infer that any one of the four people smoking caused the fire due to improper disposal of their cigarettes, and plaintiff failed to put forth evidence to eliminate any of the other individuals as the proximate cause of the fire. The trial court did not err in granting summary judgment in favor of defendant where there was no evidence of any common enterprise, of the sort that each had the right to direct and control each other movements, between the individuals smoking on the day of the fire.