Citrus Tower Boulevard Imaging Ctr. LLC v. David S. Owens MD PC

Trial courts should not rely on any decisions employing dicta regarding the "meaninglessness" of a corporate guaranty of corporate debt as a justification for imposing personal liability on a signatory to a guaranty when the clear and unambiguous language of such indicates the exact opposite.

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These appeals arise out of a lease by Citrus Tower Boulevard Imaging Center, LLC “Citrus” to David S. Owens, MD, PC “the PC” of certain magnetic resonance imaging equipment and related services. The trial court granted summary judgment to the PC’s principal, Dr. David. S. Owens “Owens” in Citrus’s action on a guaranty agreement executed in connection with the lease. Citrus appeals from that order in Case No. A13A1121, arguing that the admissions in Owens’s answer created a genuine issue of material fact, which precluded the grant of summary judgment. In Case No. A13A1122, the PC cross-appeals from the trial court’s order granting summary judgment to Citrus in its action to recover rent and other amounts owing under the lease. Specifically, the PC argues that the trial court erred because, inter alia, the lease was ambiguous and parol evidence showed that the conditions required for the commencement of the lease term never occurred. For the reasons noted infra, we affirm in both cases.

At the outset, we note that summary judgment is appropriate when the moving party can show that there is “no genuine issue of material fact and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”1 A movant may meet this burden when “the documents, affidavits, depositions and other evidence in the record reveal that there is no evidence sufficient to create a jury issue on at least one essential element of the plaintiff’s case.”2 And should the moving party meet this burden, “the nonmoving party cannot rest on its pleadings, but must point to specific evidence giving rise to a triable issue.”3

Citrus Tower Boulevard Imaging Ctr. LLC v. David S. Owens MD PC

Trial courts should not rely on any decisions employing dicta regarding the "meaninglessness" of a corporate guaranty of corporate debt as a justification for imposing personal liability on a signatory to a guaranty when the clear and unambiguous language of such indicates the exact opposite.

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