Landrau v. Solis-Betancourt

Page 117

554 F.Supp.2d 117

Sonia M. LANDRAU, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Jose E. SOLIS-BETANCOURT, et al., Defendants.

Civil No. 06-1773(FAB).

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico.

May 19, 2008.

Raymond A. Cabrera, Silvia G. Rico-Medina, Cabrera & Rico, San Juan, PR, for Plaintiffs.

PHV Kim Hoyt-Sperduto, PHV T. Stewart Rauch, The Sperduto Law Firm, PLC, Washington, DC, Angel Lopez-Hidalgo, Jose Enrique Nassar-Veglio, Enrique Nassar Rizek & Associates, San Juan, PR, for Defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

FRANCISCO A. BESOSA, District Judge.

I. Procedural History

On December 28, 2007, defendant Jose E. Solis-Betancourt ("Solis") filed a motion for summary judgment (Docket No. 49). The motion was opposed by plaintiffs Sonia M. Landrau ("Landrau"), her husband, Eduardo Garcia-Garcia, the conjugal partnership constituted between them, and the architecture firm of Garcia & Landrau Arquitectos (collectively "plaintiffs") on January 18, 2008 (Docket No. 86). Defendant Solis then filed a reply to plaintiffs' opposition on February 1, 2008 (Docket No. 93). On January 8, 2008, before defendant Solis filed his reply, plaintiffs filed their own motion for summary judgment (Docket No. 68). That motion was opposed by defendant Solis on January 18, 2008 (Docket No. 84). Subsequent to a re-opened discovery period and a new deadline for dispositive motions, defendant Solis filed a supplemental motion for summary judgment (Docket No. 105). Plaintiffs opposed the supplemental motion for summary judgment on April 9, 2008 (Docket No. 121). Defendant Solis then filed a multi-part motion, including a motion to strike on April 11, 2008 (Docket No. 126). Plaintiffs opposed this motion on April 25, 2008 (Docket No. 130).

For the reasons discussed below, the Court grants defendant Solis' motion for summary judgment (Docket No. 49), takes note of defendant Solis' supplemental motion for summary judgment (Docket No. 105), takes note of defendant Solis' motion to strike (Docket No. 126), and denies plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment (Docket No. 68).

II. Factual Background

A. Architectural Digest Article

Architectural Digest ("AD") is the leading monthly magazine in the United States regarding contemporary architecture and interior design. Each issue of AD features several profiles on selected design projects, abundantly illustrated, which describe the salient features of the designs, the genesis of the projects, and the tastes of the property's homeowners. Each article credits its author, the photographer whose images illustrate it, and the architect and/or interior designer of the featured property.

On May 29, 2002, Paul Sherrill ("Sherrill"), an architect and partner in the Washington, DC-based architecture and design firm of Solis-Betancourt wrote to James Munn, then AD's Administrative Coordinator, describing the work the firm had performed in Puerto Rico in the home of Sergio Ramirez-de Arellano ("Ramirezde Arellano") and Teresa Del Valle ("Del Valle") (collectively "the homeowners.") Sherrill stated in the letter that the firm had developed the architecture and interiors of the house and enclosed several photographs. Munn requested additional photographs of the house, which defendant Solis took and sent to Munn on August 13, 2002. On October 3, 2002, James Huntington, AD's Photographer Director, informed defendant Solis that a full photography shoot of the house had been authorized, and sent him AD's standard Design Credit Information form to complete and an Authorization for Publication letter to be forwarded to the homeowners. On October 16, 2002, Sherrill returned the completed Design Credit Information form to AD. The form indicated that defendant Solis was both the designer and architect of the house, and that Sherrill should also be credited for the project. The Authorization for Publication letter granted AD access to the homeowners' residence, and permission to publish photographs and a description of the house.

That same month, AD sent Dan Forer, a freelance photographer, to take photographs of the house. Forer traveled to Puerto Rico and photographed the residence's interiors and exteriors. He also took pictures of defendant Solis and Sherrill at the house. AD forwarded these photographs to defendant Solis, along with fact and credit sheets for each one where he was asked to indicate the authorship and source of the artwork and furniture displayed in the photographs.

AD assigned Penelope Rowlands, a freelance writer and frequent contributor to AD, to write the article on the house. Rowlands visited the residence and interviewed both the homeowners and defendant Solis before submitting her article.

The article appeared in the December 2003 issue of AD, titled "Taking the Cure." The article was not referenced in the magazine's cover and is the last article featured in the issue. The article covered six pages and included nine photographs. All but two of the photographs are interior shots and emphasize the interior design of the residence. The article did not include the architectural plans nor did it discuss the architectural design of the house in great detail. The article credits defendant Solis as the architect and interior designer of the residence based upon his representations to AD.

On December 16, 2003, Landrau wrote a letter to AD claiming that the firm of Garcia & Landrau was the actual architect of the house, and not defendant Solis as stated in the article, and requesting a retraction. AD forwarded Landrau's letter to defendant Solis. On January 23, 2004, defendant Solis responded, stating that the Garcia & Landrau firm had been contracted for the sole purpose of expediting working drawings of the house in order to obtain building permits, but only after he and the client had firmly developed a program, design, and aesthetic direction for the project. Defendant Solis further stated that Garcia & Landrau were hired for their technical skills and had not been consulted on the aesthetics and design of the project. Based on these statements, on February 2, 2004, AD informed Landrau that it would not print a retraction because it had been assured that it had correctly credited the design of the house.

On January 3, 2004, a San Juan newspaper, El Nuevo Dia, published an article about Luis Llenza, a landscape architect who worked on the Ramirez-de Arellano/Del Valle residence. The article referenced his landscaping work around the house and that it had been showcased in AD. The article repeated AD's credit of defendant Solis as the architect of the house.

B. Services provided by Solis-Betancourt and Landrau to the homeowners

Mrs. Del Valle first met with defendant Solis in the spring of 1997 to discuss redesigning the residence. Del Valle then retained defendant Solis to work on the residence. The agreement between Del Valle and Solis-Betancourt, Inc., dated June 3, 1997, calls for defendant Solis to create the design concept for the project through the generation of schematic designs, including scaled floor plans and elevations. Defendant Solis created architectural and interior designs pursuant to the agreement. Once Del Valle realized the cost involved in renovating her existing home, however she decided to build a new house altogether instead of renovating her then existing residence.

In the summer of 1998, Del Valle presented defendant Solis with a rough conceptual sketch of the configuration of the new residence. Del Valle and defendant Solis then worked together to outline the spatial configuration of the new house. On or about September 11, 1998, Del Valle retained Landrau and her firm. There is a factual dispute between the parties as to whether Landrau was then informed that defendant Solis had been retained by the homeowners to provide design concepts and guidance. Regardless, in September, 1998, Del Valle provided Landrau with a "croquis," also known as a sketch, containing the configuration of the new residence. Defendant Solis implies that this "croquis" was influenced by his design concepts and Landrau denies that she was aware of defendant Solis' involvement in the project at this point.

At a more fundamental level, there is a dispute between the parties as to who was the creative force behind the architectural design of the new residence. Defendant Solis maintains that Landrau was retained only to provide "technical working drawings" in order to obtain building permits from the Administracion de Reglamentos y Permisos ("ARPE"), the local regulatory authority. Defendant Solis adduced evidence, for example, that Del Valle provided him with successive drafts of Landrau's architectural plans for the new residence, which defendant Solis reviewed and modified. Del Valle then provided defendant Solis' changes to Landrau so that the modifications would be incorporated in the design that was ultimately submitted to and approved by ARPE. Defendant Solis also provided modifications to the plan approved by ARPE, which were incorporated into the final design of the house by the construction manager. Landrau's services were terminated once the homeowners obtained ARPE approval, whereas defendant Solis continued to work on the project.

Landrau disputes that defendant Solis played any role in the development of the architectural design of the house, adding that if her architectural design plans were shown to defendant Solis for modification, it was done without her knowledge. Indeed, Landrau adduced evidence that both she and Raul Fortuno, the construction manager for the residence, believed that defendant Solis was involved in interior design or decoration (and not the architecture of the residence). For example, Fortuno labeled "cosmetic" the design changes carried out during construction, which he attributed to defendant Solis.

There is no signed written contract for services between Del Valle and Landrau. Although Landrau sent Del Valle a letter containing a fee proposal and attached...