The U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to a jury trial in personal injury cases such as car accidents and similar damage claims arising from the negligence of others. Yet, it is possible that an injured person’s case will be dismissed by a judge before it ever gets to trial. This happens when a judge grants the defendant’s motion for summary judgment.
When a judge grants a motion for summary judgment, she is essentially declaring that there is nothing for the jury to decide, that the undisputed facts and law in the case can result in only one outcome. Stated like this in the abstract, this procedure seems shocking, but the examples below illustrate that it is a sensible doctrine that prevents the trial docket from being clogged with cases not meriting a trial.
Example 1 – John Smith is seriously injured in a Coeur d’Alene car wreck. His attorney files a lawsuit against the at-fault driver. During the ‘discovery’ phase of the case, the attorney hired by the insurance company learns that the car accident occurred 26 months before the lawsuit was filed. In Idaho, that statute of limitations for most negligence cases is two years. Therefore, the insurance attorney will be able to persuade the judge to dismiss the case because the lawsuit was filed too late.
Example 2 – Jane Johnson has lunch at a local fast food franchise. An hour later she becomes violently ill and is hospitalized for food poisoning and suffers permanent liver damage. After her attorney files a lawsuit, the attorney for the fast food franchise files a motion to dismiss the case on the ground that Jane did not preserve any samples of the food she ate, and therefore there is no evidence from which a jury could conclude that her lunch there caused the food poisoning. Because Jane had eaten breakfast and had a snack earlier in the day, the only way that Jane’s attorney can stop summary judgment is by hiring an expert who will testify that this type of food poisoning only occurs within an hour of eating the poisonous food. If such an expert cannot be found, the judge will dismiss the case.
Example 3 – Thomas Brown is seriously injured when his automobile is forced off the road by a two foot depression in a road located in Kootenai County. His attorney sues Kootenai County after filing the required government claim form. Six months before the trial date, the county’s attorney files a motion for summary judgment on the ground that, although the road is located in Kootenai County, it is actually a road owned and operated by the State of Idaho. In other words, this is a great case but the wrong party was sued. The judge will grant the motion for summary judgment. Moreover, if the time limit for filing tort claims against the State of Idaho has expired, it will now be too late for Thomas Brown to obtain recovery for his medical bills and wage loss caused by the crash.
A competent and experienced personal injury attorney will carefully investigate the facts and law for case before filing a lawsuit. This must be done to avoid having the case dismissed through summary judgment.
Coeur d’Alene attorney James Bendell has represented many people injured due to the negligence of others. Contact him if you need help or have questions about your injury claim at or by filling out the contact form.