Chapman v. Robinson

2012 ME 141, 58 A.3d 1123, 2012 WL 6720684, 2012 Me. LEXIS 141
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedDecember 28, 2012
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 2012 ME 141 (Chapman v. Robinson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chapman v. Robinson, 2012 ME 141, 58 A.3d 1123, 2012 WL 6720684, 2012 Me. LEXIS 141 (Me. 2012).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

[¶ 1] Mark Chapman appeals from a judgment entered by the District Court (Portland, Eggert, J.) after a nonjury trial on Chapman’s complaint for protection from harassment brought against his former landlord, Lawrence Robinson. See 5 M.R.S. §§ 4651(2), 4654(1) (2011). The court granted Robinson’s motion for judg[1124]*1124ment as a matter of law, see M.R. Civ. P. 50(d), after Chapman presented his case. Chapman argues that the court should not have reached its decision without affording Chapman the opportunity to play certain audio recordings and that the court should not have entered judgment as a matter of law. We affirm the judgment.

I. BACKGROUND

[¶ 2] On March 8, 2012, Chapman filed a complaint seeking temporary and permanent orders of protection from harassment against Robinson. Among other things, he alleged that he is a blind person who was evicted without being given information in a format that he could understand and that various conditions in Robinson’s building were unsafe or defective during Chapman’s tenancy. Chapman later filed an amended complaint that added allegations, including that he had been verbally and physically assaulted while in the building that Robinson owned.

[¶ 8] The court (Mulhem, J.) denied Chapman’s request for a temporary order of protection, and Chapman appealed to us. We dismissed the appeal as interlocutory.

[¶ 4] The hearing on Chapman’s request for a permanent order was scheduled for March 26, 2012, but Chapman failed to appear, and the court (Moskowitz, J.) dismissed the case. With assistance from the court clerk’s office to produce a motion in writing, Chapman moved to set aside the default judgment. The court granted his motion.

[¶ 5] The hearing was ultimately held on May 7, 2012. Chapman had not obtained counsel during the time after his default,1 and he did not seek any accommodation related to his visual limitations at the hearing. Although he had made extensive allegations in his pleadings, Chapman offered little evidence to the court (Eggert, J.) during the trial itself, and he declined to answer most of the questions from Robinson’s counsel during cross-examination. Chapman testified only that, while he was living, with assistance from the federal Section 8 program, in Portland property that Robinson owned, Robinson had hired attorneys using federal funds, had entered Chapman’s apartment or had his agents do so, had done something with the locks on the doors, had been involved in having the water shut off in Chapman’s apartment, and had “obscured” evidence relevant to Chapman’s claim for protection from harassment. Chapman’s primary complaints related to his belief that the eviction from Robinson’s property had not been accomplished according to law and that Robinson was biased against him. Chapman testified that he was forced out of the housing and moved to another apartment. On cross-examination, Chapman declined to answer specific questions from Robinson’s attorney regarding the lack of any recent contact with Robinson and declined to indicate how long he had by then lived in his new apartment. He did concede that he had not had contact with Robinson for one or two months.

[¶ 6] Chapman also told the court that he had unspecified digital information on a compact disc that he speculated had been damaged by courthouse entry-screening equipment. Despite an invitation from the court to summarize the contents of the digital recording, or to provide the files from his computer if it was available, Chapman offered no testimony about what Robinson had said, did not make his computer available, and testified only that the electronic files contained evidence of abuse [1125]*1125and harassment. Chapman did not present any additional witnesses.

[¶ 7] Robinson moved for the entry of judgment as a matter of law after Chapman had presented his case, and the court granted the motion. The court determined that, even accepting all of Chapman’s testimony as true, Chapman failed to demonstrate abuse or harassment within the meaning of the statute. The court entered a written judgment, and Chapman timely appealed.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Audio Recording

[¶ 8] We review rulings on the admissibility of evidence for clear error or an abuse of discretion. See Eaton v. Town of Wells, 2000 ME 176, ¶44, 760 A.2d 232. At trial, Chapman represented to the court that he possessed recordings showing harassment or abuse by Robinson, but that the recordings were damaged by the courthouse entry screening. In his brief, Chapman contends that his audio recordings, possibly of Robinson making specific statements, were deleted or damaged in his apartment while he was out. Regardless of the reason, the recordings were apparently unavailable at the time of trial, and Chapman did not testify or obtain any testimony from Robinson about the substance of the conversations that he purports to have recorded and lost. When offered an opportunity to present the evidence in a different or summarized form, Chapman did not do so. See M.R. Evid. 801(d)(2)(A) (“A statement is not hearsay if ... [t]he statement is offered against a party and is the party’s own statement.”). On this record, the court did not err or abuse its discretion in proceeding based on the evidence that was presented at trial.

B. Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law

[¶ 9] “The standard of review that applies when reviewing a judgment entered on a motion for judgment as a matter of law, pursuant to ... M.R. Civ. P. 50(d), in a nonjury trial depends on whether the trial court made findings of fact.” St. Louis v. Wilkinson Law Offices, P.C., 2012 ME 116, ¶ 14, 55 A.3d 443. “When the trial court has entered the judgment solely on the sufficiency of the evidence, without determining the facts, the judgment is reviewed as though it were entered pursuant to M.R. Civ. P. 50(a).” Id. (quotation marks omitted). In those circumstances, we will “consider the evidence and every justifiable inference from the evidence in the light most favorable to the party against whom the judgment was entered.” Id. (quotation marks omitted). When the court has reached findings, we will “accept those findings unless they are clearly erroneous.” Id. ¶ 15.

[¶ 10] Because the court granted Robinson’s motion for judgment as a matter of law based on a determination that the evidence was insufficient to demonstrate harassment, we will review this judgment by considering all evidence and every justifiable inference from that evidence in the light most favorable to Chapman to determine whether the evidence could support a finding of harassment. See St. Louis, 2012 ME 116, ¶ 14, 55 A.3d 443; Nightingale v. Leach, 2004 ME 22, ¶ 2, 842 A.2d 1277; see also M.R. Civ. P. 50.

[¶ 11] Chapman could demonstrate harassment as defined by statute, 5 M.R.S. §§ 4651(2), 4654(1), by establishing, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Robinson

A. Directed “[t]hree or more acts of intimidation, confrontation, physical force or the threat of physical force” [1126]*1126against him “with the intention of causing fear, intimidation or damage to property and that d[id] in fact cause fear, intimidation or damage to property”;
B. Committed “[t]hree or more acts ...

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2012 ME 141, 58 A.3d 1123, 2012 WL 6720684, 2012 Me. LEXIS 141, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chapman-v-robinson-me-2012.