Gaines v. Providence Apartments

Gaines v. Providence Apartments
1987 OK 129
750 P.2d 125
59 OBJ 9
Case Number: 65168
Decided: 12/16/1987
Modified: 12/21/1987
Supreme Court of Oklahoma

NORVELLE GAINES AND RUBY GAINES, INDIVIDUALLY AND NEXT FRIEND OF MARVIN GAINES, A MINOR, APPELLANTS,
v.
PROVIDENCE APARTMENTS, METRO PROPERTIES, INC., IMPACT ASSOCIATES, INC., AND SAVILLE MANAGEMENT, LTD., APPELLEES.

Certiorari to the Court of Appeals, Tulsa Division.

¶0 Appeal from trial court's summary judgment in negligence action. Court of Appeals, Tulsa Division, reversed trial court's summary judgment in favor of apartment complex owners and held for third-party plaintiff/appellant on the basis of 41 O.S. 1986 §§ 101 et seq., the Oklahoma Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. CERTIORARI GRANTED; OPINION OF COURT OF APPEALS REVERSED AND VACATED; SUMMARY JUDGMENT OF TRIAL COURT AFFIRMED.

Rex K. Travis, Oklahoma City, for appellants.

Micheal L. Darrah, Huckaby, Fleming, Frailey, Chaffin & Darrah, David D. Wilson and Angela D. Ailles, Oklahoma City, for appellees.

ALMA WILSON, Justice.

[749 P.2d 126]

¶1 This appeal is taken from a summary judgment entered by the trial court in a negligence action. On assignment to the Court of Appeals that court reversed the summary judgment of the trial court and remanded the case for trial. Thereafter, this Court granted petition for certiorari to review the opinion of the Court of Appeals. We now reverse and vacate the opinion of the Court of Appeals and affirm the summary judgment of the trial court.

¶2 The material facts in this case are undisputed. On April 11, 1984, fourteen-year-old Marvin Gaines broke his neck while attempting to execute a bicycle "wheelie"

I

¶3 The undisputed facts establish that neither Marvin Gaines, nor his parents, have ever been tenants in the Appellees' apartment complex. Appellants (plaintiffs below) are thus strangers to the rental agreement of the landlord and tenants of the subject apartment complex. At § 103 (A) of the Oklahoma Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, supra, it is provided:

Application of Act.

"Except as otherwise provided in the act, this act applies to, regulates and determines rights, obligations and remedies under a rental agreement, whenever made, for a dwelling unit located in this state." (emphasis added)

We find nothing in the Act which would extend applicability to the Appellant herein.

II

¶4 The proximate cause of an event must be that which in a natural and continuous sequence, unbroken by an [749 P.2d 127] independent cause, produces the event and without which the event would not have occurred.

¶5 CERTIORARI GRANTED; OPINION OF THE COURT OF APPEALS REVERSED AND VACATED; JUDGMENT OF THE TRIAL COURT AFFIRMED.

¶6 DOOLIN, C.J., HARGRAVE, V.C.J., and HODGES, LAVENDER, SIMMS, KAUGER, SUMMERS, JJ., concur.

¶7 OPALA, J., concurs in judgment.

Footnotes:

1 A "wheelie" is a bicycle maneuver in which the bicycle rider pulls back on the handle bars, raising the front wheel off of the ground, while continuing to ride on the rear wheel.

2 Beesley v. United States, 364 F.2d 194 (10th Cir. 1966), and cases cited therein, wherein the law of proximate cause in Oklahoma is clearly delineated.

3 Id.