James Clark, III v. Frank Woodward d/b/a Yankee Precision Engineering & a.

• Court: Supreme Court of New Hampshire
• Decided: October 27, 2017
• Docket: 2017-0189
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

SUPREME COURT

In Case No. 2017-0189, James Clark, III v. Frank Woodward d/b/a Yankee Precision Engineering & a., the court on October 27, 2017, issued the following order:

Having considered the parties’ briefs and the record submitted on appeal, we conclude that oral argument is unnecessary in this case. See Sup. Ct. R. 18(1). The plaintiff, James Clark, III, appeals the entry by the Circuit Court (Boyle, J.) of judgment for defendant LS Tractor USA, LLC (LS Tractor), on his small claim action for negligence. We affirm.

In his negligence action, the plaintiff alleged that LS Tractor was negligent for failing “to install the proper oil pressure switch which would have prevented the engine failure.” The trial court ruled in favor of LS Tractor after finding that the plaintiff negligently failed to change the oil in his tractor properly and that his negligence caused the tractor’s engine to fail. We interpret the plaintiff’s appellate argument to be that the evidence was insufficient to support the trial court’s determination.

We review sufficiency of the evidence claims as a matter of law and uphold the findings and rulings of the trial court unless they lack evidentiary support or are tainted by error of law. Guyotte v. O’Neill, 157 N.H. 616, 623 (2008). We accord considerable weight to the trial court’s judgments on the credibility of witnesses and the weight to be given testimony. Id. We conclude that the evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to LS Tractor, see id., was sufficient to support the trial court’s determination.

Affirmed.

Dalianis, C.J., and Hicks, Lynn, Bassett, and Hantz Marconi, JJ., concurred.

Eileen Fox, Clerk