Vintage Wings & Things, LLC v. Toce & Daiy, LLC

886 So. 2d 652, 4 La.App. 3 Cir. 706, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 2699, 2004 WL 2537059
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided November 10, 2004·No. No. 04-706·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

I,AMY, Judge.

The plaintiff filed suit against the defendant law firm, seeking payment for charter flights taken on one of the plaintiffs aircraft. The trial court granted an involuntary dismissal at the close of the plaintiffs case finding that the plaintiff failed to meet its burden of proof. The plaintiff appeals. The defendant answers the appeal seeking damages for frivolous appeal. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of the trial court and deny the claim for frivolous appeal.

Factual and Procedural Background

The plaintiff in this matter, Vintage Wings & Things, owns aircraft available for charter. At the time of the events in question in this suit, Vintage Wings was owned wholly by David Jeansonne. At issue are two flights taken on a Lear jet owned by Vintage Wings. The record establishes that, for purposes of chartering the Lear, Vintage Wings entered into a charter management relationship with Million Air Dallas. As part of this relationship, arrangements for charters were made through Million Air, which would then invoice the party responsible for the charter. According to Vintage Wings bookkeeper Valerie Broussard, a percentage of the charter fee would then be forwarded to Vintage Wings.

Vintage Wings filed a Petition on Open Account in November 2001, asserting that the law firm of Toce & Daiy “maintained an open account with petitioner for services rendered and/or goods sold and delivered relative to flights being booked through Vintage Wings & Things, LLC and incurred charges in the amount of $40,435.55.” It alleged that this outstanding balance had not been paid.

The record establishes that the outstanding figure related to two flights taken by an attorney of Toce & Daiy, Andre’ Toce.1 One flight, in January 2001, involved La trip from Aspen, Colorado, to Lafayette.2 The other flight involved a February 2001 trip from Houston, Texas, to Santa Rosa, California, along with a return trip. There is no dispute that Mr. Toce took the flights at issue. Several issues, however, are in dispute.

The central issue in this case is whether payment was expected for the two chartered flights. The defendant contends [654]*654that these flights were provided by Mr. Jeansonne to Mr. Toce due to his two million dollar, investment in one of Mr. Jeansonne’s other businesses. Mr. Toce also contends that, at the time of the flights in question, Mr. Jeansonne was soliciting Mr. Toce’s purchase of the Lear. Due to Mr. Jeansonne’s death subsequent to the flights in question, the record contains no indication from him as to the nature of the flights. Finally, Toce & Daiy observes that it is the named defendant. However, it contends that the flights at issue were not firm-related, but that the flights were taken for Mr. Toce’s personal use.

The matter proceeded to a bench trial. After the close of the plaintiffs case, the defendant moved for an involuntary dismissal. The motion was granted by the trial court.

The plaintiff appeals, assigning the following as error:

1. Business records are an exception to the hearsay rule. Because the exception does not require that the business maintaining the records, and seeking their introduction into evidence, also be the business which prepared or generated the records, it was error for the Court to limit the admission of PL-9 (the invoice for the January flight) and PL-11 (the Owner Statement summaries);
|a2. Appellant established that the Defendant had a history of chartering Appellant’s aircraft, that the flights at issue had been taken by Defendant, properly invoiced, the sum of the invoice, and that they had not been paid by Defendant, and therefore the Court erred in granting Defendant’s motion for involuntary dismissal as Plaintiff had established grounds for relief.

The defendant answered the appeal, seeking damages for frivolous appeal.

Discussion

Business Records Exception

At issue in this assignment is the introduction of two exhibits, an invoice for one of the flights in question and a “December 2000 Owner’s Statement Summary.” The record indicates that both pieces of evidence were generated by Million Air. As no Million Air representative testified at trial, the plaintiff attempted to introduce the contents of the exhibits through the business records exception to the hearsay rule. See La.Code Evid. art. 803(6). Because the records were not generated by Vintage Wings, the trial court admitted the exhibits for the limited purpose of evidencing the information received by Vintage Wings. The plaintiff asserts that the trial court erred in finding that the “custodian” testifying as to the nature of the business records must be from the business generating the documents. The plaintiff points to federal jurisprudence related to the similarly worded Fed.R.Evid. 803(6), which it asserts indicates that the business having custody of the records does not have to be the company creating them for their introduction. See U.S. v. Duncan, 919 F.2d 981 (5th Cir.1990), cert. denied, 500 U.S. 926, 111 S.Ct. 2036, 114 L.Ed.2d 121 (1991); U.S. v. Veytia-Bravo, 603 F.2d 1187 (5th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1024, 100 S.Ct. 686, 62 L.Ed.2d 658 (1980). Rather, the plaintiff contends, it is the reliability of the documents at issue which must be examined by the trial court.

|4The Louisiana Code of Evidence defines hearsay as “a statement, other than one made by the declarant while testifying at the present trial or hearing, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted.” La.Code Evid. art. 801(C). [655]*655The business records exception to the hearsay rule is contained in Louisiana Code of Evidence Article 803, which provides, in part:

The following are not excluded by the hearsay rule, even though the declarant is available as a witness;
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(6) Records of regularly conducted business activity. A memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, in any form, including but not limited to that which is stored by the use of an optical disk imaging system, of acts, events, conditions, opinions, or diagnoses, made at or near the time by, or from information transmitted by, a person with knowledge, if made and kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity, and if it was the regular practice of that business activity to make and to keep the memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, all as shown by the testimony of the custodian or other qualified witness, unless the source of information or the method or circumstances of preparation indicate lack of trustworthiness. This exception is inapplicable unless the recorded information was furnished to the business either by a person who was routinely acting for the business in reporting the information or in circumstances under which the statement would not be excluded by the hearsay rule.

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Vintage Wings & Things, LLC v. Toce & Daiy, LLC, 886 So. 2d 652, 4 La.App. 3 Cir. 706, 2004 La. App. LEXIS 2699, 2004 WL 2537059 (La. Ct. App. 2004).

886 So. 2d 652 (Vintage Wings & Things, LLC v. Toce & Daiy, LLC) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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