Sechrest v. Safiol

1980 Mass. App. Div. 133, 1 Mass. Supp. 634, 1980 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 54
CourtMassachusetts District Court, Appellate Division
DecidedSeptember 9, 1980
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 1980 Mass. App. Div. 133 (Sechrest v. Safiol) 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
Sechrest v. Safiol, 1980 Mass. App. Div. 133, 1 Mass. Supp. 634, 1980 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 54 (Mass. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

Welsh, J.

This is a civil action sounding in contract, in which the plaintiff seeks the return of a deposit of $3,800.00 paid on account of a purchase and sales agreement between the plaintiff as seller, and defendant, George E. Safiol, as buyer. The other defendant, Stanley E. Collinson, Jr., was the real estate broker who had held the deposit and who deposited the money so held into court agreeable to an order allowing him to do so. Collinson was, in effect, a stakeholder who did not participate in the litigation as a party after the money was paid into court.

By way of answer, defendant Safiol asserts that he properly exercised an election given him by the terms of the agreement to cancel the contract because certain conditions precedent were not met.

The trial judge found for the defendant Safiol and ordered that the deposit money paid into court be turned over to him, and judgment was entered accordingly.

The plaintiff filed certain requests for rulings of law in connection with its claim against the defendant Safiol, all of which were allowed by the trial judge. The requests [134]*134for rulings are set forth in the footnote.2 No claim of error may be asserted by the plaintiff based upon the court’s action allowing the rulings he requested. Franco v. Marinow, 58 Mass. App. Dec. 29, 33 (1976); Louis F. Casella, Inc. v. Citizens Ins. Co. of New Jersey, 27 Mass. App. Dec. 60, 63 (1963); Korb v. Albany Carpet Cleaning Co., 301 Mass. 317, 318 (1938).

The plaintiff filed certain requests for rulings of law in connection with the defendant Collinson, the broker. These requests, which were allowed but deemed inapplicable in view of the facts found, are set forth in a footnote.3 Requests for rulings may properly be refused where rendered inapplicable by the court’s findings of fact. Jaquith v. Morrill, 204 Mass. 181, 187, 188 (1910); Hetherington & Sons v. William Firth Co., 210 Mass. 8, 18 (1911). In the instant case, the requests for rulings were allowed, presumably because the judge determined them to be accurate statements of the law in the abstract, but either immaterial because inconsistent with the facts he found or otherwise inapplicable. See Viera v. Balsamo, 328 Mass. 37, 39 (1951). The allowance of requests for rulings affords no basis for appellate review at the instance of the proponent of the requests for rulings and the Appellate Court has no duty to consider the correctness of such action. Korb v. Albany Carpet Cleaning Co., supra, p. 318; Woodman v. Haynes, 289 Mass. 114, 118 (1935); Baker v. Davis, 299 Mass. 345, 348 (1938). The Appellant neither argued orally nor in his brief the propriety of the court’s action on the requests for rulings and we deem them waived on appeal. Holliston Mills, Inc. v. Plimpton Corp., 55 Mass. App. Dec. 43, 51 (1974); Rule 64 (f) Dist./Mun. Cts. R. Civ. P.

An even more fundamental reason appears for not reviewing the rulings requested by the plaintiff as to defendant Collinson. The docket entries show that on February 15, 1979 the court allowed the defendant Collinson’s motion for leave to deposit the funds he was then holding \yith the court. Upon payment of the money into court, defendant Collinson might have been discharged as a party defendant in the court’s discretion.4 The plaintiff did not take any steps to preserve for appeal purposes any claim of error he might have had to such action by the trial judge. No request for report appears to have been filed by the plaintiff with respect to said action. Furthermore, the plaintiff in his brief asserts his willingness to dismiss his claim against the broker, the defendant Collinson, who did not participate at the trial and who is not a party to this appeal.5 In view of this assertion, we deem any requests for rulings as to the defendant Collinson as waived.

[135]*135The report that was submitted to this division is flawed by a number of significant substantive and procedural infirmities. First, the report fails to contain any statement indicating unequivocally the action of the trial court by which the plaintiff-appellant claims to be aggrieved. There is no clear identification of the ruling or rulings about which the plaintiff complains. Such a statement is mandatory. Rule 64 (c)(2), Dist./ Mun. Cts. R. Civ. P.; Dillon v. Framingham, 288 Mass. 511, 513 (1934) Altshuler v. Field, 336 Mass. 761, 762 (1958). This deficiency takes on increased significance in this case because no request for report, apart from a draft report, was ever filed. Of course, a seasonably filed draft report is deemed to include a request for report. Rule 64(c)(l)(i), Dist./Mun. Cts. R. Civ. P. When this alternative method of perfecting an appeal to the appellate division is elected by the appellant, it is crucial that the report contain a clear and concise statement of the rulings or other actions by which he claims to be aggrieved, and how he claims to be prejudiced by such rulings. The ‘ ‘Draft Report Model”, which is incorporated by reference as part of Rule 64 Dist./Mun. Cts. R. Civ. P., ought to be scrutinized by counsel and by the court, and followed as closely and as fully as the circumstance's of the case permit. Altshuler v. Field, supra p. 761; Tranfaglia v. Security National Bank, 50 Mass. App. Dec. 85, 87 (1973). Secondly, the report does not contain in narrative form a statement of the evidence pertinent to the issues on appeal.6 Rather, it is stated in the report that the judge’s findings of fact accurately summarize the evidence at the trial. While it is perhaps not totally improper in some cases to combine the judge’s findings of fact with a statement of evidence [see Olofson v. Kilgallon, 362 Mass. 803, 805 (1973)],7 the practice is to be discouraged; The appeal process is measurably facilitated by a clear demarcation between the findings of fact and statements of the evidence. Again, preparation of the draft report by the appellant in accordance with the format prescribed achieves not only desirable uniformity but also tends to obviate omissions due to oversight. The responsibility for the report that is ultimately submitted to the appellate division is not only that of counsel, but primarily that of the judge settling the report. Preparation of the report should be carefully supervised by the trial judge, not only with a view towards its substantive content and completeness, but also as to adherence to the prescribed form and other procedural requirements. Kelly v. Foley, 284 Mass. 503, 509 (1933); Perry v. Hanover, 314 Mass. 167, 168, 169 (1943); Tranfaglia v. Security National Bank, 50 Mass. App. Dec. 85, 87 (1973).

Appellant’s principal contentions are that the judge’s findings are mutually inconsistent and that the judge’s finding that the defendant made a sufficient effort in good faith to bring about the happening of the conditions precedent contained in the real estate sales contract was not supported by evidence.8

The trial judge filed the following special findings of fact:

This is an action of contract brought by Robert C. Sechrest (Plaintiff) against George E.

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Bluebook (online)
1980 Mass. App. Div. 133, 1 Mass. Supp. 634, 1980 Mass. App. Div. LEXIS 54, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sechrest-v-safiol-massdistctapp-1980.