Penta v. Covino

1994 Mass. App. Div. 4, 1994 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 2
CourtMassachusetts District Court, Appellate Division
DecidedJanuary 12, 1994
StatusPublished

This text of 1994 Mass. App. Div. 4 (Penta v. Covino) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts District Court, Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Penta v. Covino, 1994 Mass. App. Div. 4, 1994 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 2 (Mass. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

Furnari, J.

This is an action in contract and tort arising out of an oral agreement by defendant Mario C. Covino, III (“Covino”) to provide landscaping design services, labor and materials to plaintiff James A Penta (“Penta”). Penta’s complaint sought recovery in five counts for the defendant’s alleged breach of contract, breach of express and implied warranties, misrepresentation and G.L.c. 93A unfair and deceptive practices.

Covino’s answer alleged, inter alia, that any loss sustained by Penta was proximately caused by his own failure to maintain the trees and shrubs in question, and that Penta’s demand letter failed to satisfy the requirements of G.L.c. 93A Covino also counterclaimed for extra labor and materials supplied to Penta.

After an unduly protracted trial, the court found for Penta on both Covino’s counterclaim and all five complaint counts, assessed damages on each count, and entered judgment in the amount of $21,358.00 in punitive G.L.c. 93A damages, plus $17,900.00 in attorneys’ fees and $4,048.22 in costs. Covino thereafter requested a report to this Division on multiple charges of error in the court’s evidentiary rulings, disposition of both parties’ requests for findings of fact and rulings of law, denial of Covino’s mid-trial motion for Rule 41(b) (2) dismissal and post-judgment motions for amendment of findings and a new trial, and the imposition of sanctions on defendant’s counsel.

The trial court elected to sign the first and only draft report submitted by defendant’s counsel, without amendment and without a hearing, despite both a Rule 64(c) (5) extension of time for report settlement by this Division and a request for hearing by the plaintiff. The absence of any hearing is apparent from both the docket and from the failure of the “report” to bear any effective resemblance either to Form 33 (Draft Report Model) or to the concise record of trial court evidence and proceedings envisioned by Rule 64(c). See, e.g., Dillon v. Framingham, 288 Mass. 511, 513 (1934). The need for an organized, clear record was particularly acute in this case which involved multiple days of testimony by the parties and numerous experts as to planting procedures, growth patterns and proper maintenance of more than 30 different species of trees and shrubs, and an identification and condition report on over 230 different plants on Penta’s property for each growing year from 1986 to the time of trial in 1991. The report signed by the trial judge consists, however, of 245 rambling pages, devoid of index, with a 35 page addendum. In lieu of a narrative summary of trial evidence, the report sets forth 65 pages of what appear to be informal notes made from a review of the trial court tapes, sprinkled with occasional fragments of actual testimony and portions of selected trial exhibits, all in a disjointed, if not incoherent, style which frequently [5]*5eschews complete sentences.1 The remaining 185 pages are inexcusably cluttered with duplicate and even triplicate copies of all manner of pleadings, motions, requests, exhibits and rulings. Even in a case of less factual complexity, there could be little justification for so complete a disregard of the duty imposed by Rule 64 to fashion a trial court record suitable as a vehicle for the presentation of appellate issues. See generally, Keeney v. Ciborowski, 304 Mass. 371, 373-374 (1939).

From the morass certified by the trial judge as containing all the evidence material to the questions reported, the following can be gleaned. Plaintiff James A Penta, a lawyer, financial consultant, real estate developer and property manager, contacted twenty-three year old Mark C. Covino, a local landscaper, about landscaping the grounds and boundaries of his Winchester home. Impatient to enjoy the effects achieved only from years of normal plant growth and development, Penta sought an instant, fully landscaped effect He informed Covino of his specific preferences for, e.g., a variety of evergreens, flowering shrubs, dogwoods and a hemlock border along the property line, and Covino included these and other species in a landscaping proposal. Penta then altered Covino’s plan by eliminating more than 125 trees and shrubs and rejecting certain planting sites and formations. Pursuant to their eventual oral agreement Covino planted 213 trees and shrubs in August and September, 1986, and, at Penta’s later request, an additional 5 trees in April 1987. There was no agreement for Covino’s care and maintenance of the plants, and Penta in fact informed Covino that he and his family would maintain the landscaping. Among other maintenance recommendations, Covino suggested that Penta contact Chem Lawn to fertilize and prune the plants and advised Penta to install both a sprinkler and a drainage system.

On May 23, 1987 and July 6, 1987, Penta sent written letters of complaint to Covino that, inter alia, “plants and trees [were] drying and dying”; rhododendrons, white pines and junipers were doing poorly; two trees had been “windblown out of line”; there was winter kill in one tree that had not been pruned and an overabundance of weeds; there had been no deep fertilizing etc. Covino twice returned to the property in response to these letters. Athough none of the plants had died, Covino endeavored to address Penta’s complaints by planting additional rhododendrons, junipers, white pines and other plants, by staking trees, and by arranging for deep fertilizing to be done by an independent service. Penta responded with a third letter of September 28, 1987 which informed Covino that experts he had hired to analyze the “retardation of lawn, tree and shrub growth and the loss or damage to trees shrubs and junipers previously reported” attributed the same to Covino’s improper preparation and planting of the trees and shrubs. No specific plants were mentioned. The letter stated that uprooting and replanting would increase loss, that Penta might turn to Covino’s supplier for “replacement of products”, and that Penta was not waiving his right to partial or complete recovery of all monies paid to Covino for labor and materials.

By letter of July 27, 1988, Penta’s lawyer demanded G.L.c. 93A relief in the amount of $25,000.00. The letter stated, in pertinent part:

As you know from prior correspondence . . . from Mr. Penta, the details of which I will not repeat but to which I direct your attention, numerous deficiencies in your services have been experienced and much of the landscape has died or is dying.
The failure to design, plant, and care for the landscaping materials in a pro[6]*6fessional manner was in contravention of the terms of the agreement...
As a proximate consequence of the actions taken by your employees or agents, the value of the landscaping materials has decreased by at least one half... [emphasis supplied].

After an unsatisfactory response from Covino’s lawyer, this action ensued.

1. Twenty-six of Covino’s thirty-one requests sought rulings that, as a matter of law, the evidence “required” a finding in his favor and did “not warrant” a finding in Penta’s favor on each of the five complaint counts. The trial judge treated each of these requests as “proposed findings of fact at odds with my findings in Section I.”2 Such disposition was error as Covino’s requests were in form and substance proper rule 64(b) requests for rulings of law as to the insufficiency of the evidence to satisfy Penta’s burden of proof. Hooper v. Kennedy, 320 Mass. 576 (1947);

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Bluebook (online)
1994 Mass. App. Div. 4, 1994 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/penta-v-covino-massdistctapp-1994.