Dillon v. Greenbriar Digging Service, Ltd.

919 So. 2d 172, 2005 Miss. App. LEXIS 361, 2005 WL 1384245
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedJune 7, 2005
Docket2004-CA-00397-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 919 So. 2d 172 (Dillon v. Greenbriar Digging Service, Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dillon v. Greenbriar Digging Service, Ltd., 919 So. 2d 172, 2005 Miss. App. LEXIS 361, 2005 WL 1384245 (Mich. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

919 So.2d 172 (2005)

Fred DILLON, Appellant,
v.
GREENBRIAR DIGGING SERVICE, LTD. PS, Appellee.

No. 2004-CA-00397-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

June 7, 2005.

*174 Jack G. Price, McComb, attorney for appellant.

Donald Alan Windham, Richard F. Yarborough, Jackson, attorneys for appellee.

EN BANC.

CHANDLER, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Fred Dillon filed a complaint against Greenbriar Digging alleging negligence when one of Dillon's horses was found dead near a trench dug by Greenbriar. Dillon filed suit against Greenbriar when it refused to compensate Dillon for the value of his horse. After a trial, the jury entered a verdict in favor of Greenbriar. The Walthall County Circuit Court denied Dillon's request for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Dillon appeals, raising the following issues, which we quote verbatim from his brief:

I. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN ALLOWING VICTOR PLOATTSKI TO TESTIFY ABOUT A DAILY PROGRESS SHEET OF WHICH HE HAD NO PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE:

II. THE VERDICT OF THE JURY IS AGAINST THE OVERWHELMING WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE AND CONTRARY TO THE LAW

III. THE VERDICT OF THE JURY IS CONTRARY TO THE PHYSICAL FACTS AND THE EVIDENCE PRESENTED IN THE CASE

IV. IN CONSIDERING ALL OF THE EVIDENCE PRESENTED IN THIS ACTION IN THE LIGHT AND WITH ALL REASONABLE INFERENCES FAVORABLE TO GREENBRIAR, THE EVIDENCE AND INFERENCES ARE STILL SO STRONGLY AND OVERWHELMING IN FAVOR OF FRED DILLON THAT REASONABLE MEN, UNAFFECTED BY BIAS, PASSION AND PREJUDICE, COULD ONLY ARRIVE AT A VERDICT IN FAVOR OF THE PLAINTIFF, FRED DILLON

V. THE JURY INSTRUCTION MARKED D-5 SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ADMITTED INTO COURT PROCEEDINGS

¶ 2. Finding no error, we affirm.

FACTS

¶ 3. Lexie Water Association upgraded its water system for its customers residing in Walthall County. It contracted with Greenbriar Digging Services, Ltd. to dig the trenches. Fred Dillon agreed to give the Lexie Water Association and its contractors an easement to lay pipe across his property. The trench across Dillon's property was dug in late November of 2001, with the normal procedure of leaving a berm of dirt along the top of the trench *175 to take account of any dirt settling over time and returning to recover the berm in the passage of time. Dillon owned several horses, and he was warned to keep his livestock away from the trench during this period.

¶ 4. In March of 2002, Dillon found one of his horses dead. The horse was found in a boggy area near the location of the trench. When Dillon discovered the horse, the carcass had a strong odor and showed signs of significant decay, demonstrating that it had been in the trench for many days. Lexie made arrangements to bury the horse. Dillon contacted Greenbriar about the incident, and Greenbriar denied all liability. Dillon sued Greenbriar, alleging that its negligence in digging the trench resulted in the death of his horse. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Greenbriar. The circuit court judge denied Dillon's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict.

I. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN ALLOWING VICTOR PLOATTSKI TO TESTIFY ABOUT A DAILY PROGRESS SHEET OF WHICH HE HAD NO PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE

¶ 5. As part of its defense, Greenbriar introduced an inspection report that was prepared by Lexie. Lexie's inspection reports are prepared daily by the inspector on duty. The report addresses the activities performed that day and the inspector's impressions of them.

¶ 6. Victor Ploattski was an inspector for Lexie. He testified as to Lexie's inspection report that the company prepared after performing its work on Dillon's property. The report was admitted into evidence over the objection of Dillon's counsel. Dillon claims that the inspection report was hearsay because Ploattski was not the inspector on the job the day Lexie performed the work on Dillon's property.

¶ 7. Ploattski was testifying as to records of a regularly conducted business activity. The report is therefore admissible under the business records exception to the hearsay rule. M.R.E. 803(6) defines a record of a regularly conducted business activity in the following way:

A memorandum, report, record or data compilation, in any form, or acts, events, conditions, opinions, or diagnoses, made at or near the time by, or from information transmitted by, a person with knowledge, if kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity, and if it was the regular practice of that business activity to make the memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, all as shown by the testimony of the custodian or other qualified witness or self-authenticated pursuant to Rule 902(11), unless the source of information or the method or circumstances of preparation indicate lack of trustworthiness.

¶ 8. The foundational requirements for admitting evidence under the business records exception are: 1) the statement is in written or recorded form; 2) the record concerns acts, events, conditions, opinions or diagnoses; 3) the record was made at or near the time of the matter recorded; 4) the source of the information had personal knowledge of the matter; 5) the record was kept in the course of regular business activity; and 6) it was the regular practice of the business activity to make the record. Flowers v. State, 773 So.2d 309, 322(¶ 72) (Miss.2000).

¶ 9. In establishing the foundational requirements to establish the reliability of the inspection report, the following questioning occurred:

Q (By Greenbriar's Counsel): And you served as an inspector on this particular job.
A (By Victor Ploattski): Yes, sir.
*176 Q: What, and you're employed with the water association?
A: Yes, sir.
Q: And what are you inspecting?
A: Well, I was informed I inspected the depth of the trench. I kept records, as a daily report. I drew diagrams so that it could be made into print, to where they could no where the water lines were run. And I was just, being from Lexie, I was just looking after their behalf.
Q: Now, let me ask you what type of reporting is done in conjunction with inspection on a project. Do you generate any type of reports or paperwork?
A: Your daily inspection.
Q: Okay. And is that a, do you have some type of form?
A: Yes, sir,
Q: That's provided by the—
A: Provided by Lexie Water that we filled daily.
Q: These reports, are they routinely and regularly prepared in connection with any type project that the water association—
A: They were done daily.
Q: And are you familiar with the form of that report?
A: Yes, sir.
Q: (Showing the inspection report): Do you recognize that to be the form that you would have used had you been the inspector on the job that day?
A: Yes, sir.
Q: Who was the inspector on this particular job?
A: On this particular paper it says Robert VanDan.
Q: And who is Mr. VanDan?
A: He's the one that employed me.
Q: Do you recognize this to be his writing on the report?
A: Yes, sir.

¶ 10.

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Bluebook (online)
919 So. 2d 172, 2005 Miss. App. LEXIS 361, 2005 WL 1384245, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dillon-v-greenbriar-digging-service-ltd-missctapp-2005.