Investigatory Report Admissible as Business Record
October 15, 2014The Plaintiff hired Classic Superoof to build a metal roof for her house, which it did. The appearance of the roof, however, was marred by markings and scuff marks. As a result, Plaintiff complained to (and ultimately sued) Classic. At first, Classic thought the problem stemmed from the metal itself and therefore contacted the metal company, who then, in turn, contacted U.S. Steel, the provider of the metals used to make the roof. Looking to investigate the issue, U.S. Steel sent its own metallurgical engineer to the Plaintiff’s home to inspect the roof. The engineer performed an inspection and (perhaps not surprisingly) concluded that the coating on the roof was damaged during installation (thus absolving U.S. Steel of any responsibility and pinning the blame on Classic).
At trial, the Plaintiff used the U.S. Steel report and won a judgment against Classic. On appeal, Classic argued, among other things, that the trial court erred by admitting the report because it was hearsay–specifically, because it was prepared in anticipation of litigation, it fell outside the business records exceptions. The Court of Appeals rejected that argument, noting that the engineer was not contacted by the Plaintiff, there was no lawsuit on file at the time, and that the engineer testified that his job was simply to investigate the cause of the concern.
