Appellant Joe Dean Trostle appeals from a take-nothing summary judgment entered in favor of Inez Trostle (Inez), individually and as independent executrix of the estate of Winston E. Trostle, Sr., deceased, and as trustee of the Winston E. Trostle, Sr. Estate Trust and the Winston E. Trostle, Sr. Separate Property Trust in his lawsuit seeking recovery for an alleged breach of fiduciary duty and fraud. Appellant also sued Winston Earl Trostle, Jr. (Earl), but summary judgment was sought and awarded in favor of Inez only and that cause of action was severed, which resulted in this appeal. In one issue, appellant asserts error on the part of the trial court in granting summary judgment. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Winston Earl Trostle, Sr. was the father of appellant and Earl and the husband of Inez, who was appellant’s stepmother. He died on July 7, 1994, from a lethal injection of insulin while he was a resident of Olsen Manor Nursing Home. Earl and Inez filed a wrongful death lawsuit based on the circumstances surrounding his death and were ultimately awarded approximately $13,000,000 in actual and punitive damages by a jury. Thereafter, the parties entered into a settlement agreement in which Earl and Inez received $6,500,000. Appellant claimed that Inez and Earl misrepresented to him that he was included in the lawsuit and disbursed all of the settlement funds, from which he received nothing. He filed suit based on claims of fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, civil conspiracy, and unjust enrichment and sought the imposition of a constructive trust, a temporary injunction, an accounting, and an award of actual and punitive damages.
Inez filed both a traditional motion for summary judgment and a no-evidence motion for summary judgment. The standards applicable to the review of each type of summary judgment are so well established as to make their reiteration unnecessary. See Nixon v. Mr. Property Management Co., Inc., 690 S.W.2d 546, 548-49 (Tex. 1985); Kimber v. Sideris, 8 S.W.3d 672, 675-76 (Tex.App.–Amarillo 1999, no pet.). A no-evidence summary judgment motion is properly granted if the respondent fails to present more than a scintilla of probative evidence to raise a genuine issue of material fact as to an essential element of respondent’s case. Id. at 676. More than a scintilla of evidence exists when reasonable and fair-minded people may differ in their conclusions. Burroughs Wellcome Co. v. Crye, 907 S.W.2d 497, 499 (Tex. 1995). In the order granting summary judgment, the trial court did not specify the particular grounds upon which it relied, although at the hearing on the motion, the trial court stated that it was granted on all grounds. In this state of the record, we must affirm it if any of the grounds stated in the motion are meritorious. Carr v. Brasher, 776 S.W.2d 567, 569 (Tex. 1989).
