Background
Carl and Hattie Franklin alleged that BellSouth Telecommunications, LLC, doing business as AT&T Louisiana, and Suddenlink entered their property without permission on April 27, 2022, to install internet lines for neighbors Mike and Pamela Ware. They claimed the work damaged plumbing and landscaping, caused standing water and mosquitoes, and amounted to trespass and conversion. They also sought damages connected to Carl Franklin’s arrest following a dispute over stakes placed near the properties.
BellSouth moved for summary judgment, submitting an affidavit from its Northwest Louisiana network-services director and a subdivision plat. The affidavit stated that BellSouth had no record of dispatching personnel to either property on April 27, 2022, and that any BellSouth work occurred within a recorded utility easement. The trial court granted the motion and dismissed the Franklins’ claims against BellSouth with prejudice.
The Court’s Holding
The Second Circuit affirmed. It held that the trial court properly considered the network-services director’s affidavit: the Franklins timely objected to it in their summary-judgment opposition memorandum, but the affidavit sufficiently established the affiant’s personal knowledge and competence through her position and involvement with the relevant operations.
BellSouth met its burden by showing both the absence of records placing its employees at the properties on April 27, 2022, and the existence of an active ten-foot utility easement. The court concluded that the plat’s separate “closed & abandoned” easement was not the easement BellSouth used. The Franklins’ conclusory affidavit did not create a genuine factual dispute, and entry within the valid easement was not trespass.
Key Takeaways
- Objections to summary-judgment evidence must be raised in a timely opposition or reply memorandum, rather than through an oral motion to strike at the hearing.
- An affidavit may support summary judgment when the affiant establishes personal knowledge and competence through her operational role and familiarity with the records at issue.
- A recorded, existing utility easement authorized BellSouth’s access for maintenance and defeated the asserted trespass theory.
Why It Matters
The decision illustrates that a plaintiff opposing summary judgment must offer concrete evidence, not repeated allegations, to establish a genuine dispute about trespass. It also distinguishes between separate easements shown on a recorded plat: the existence of an abandoned easement does not undermine a different, active easement authorizing utility access.