Grand Strand Const. Co., Inc. v. Graves

• Decision Date: 17 November 1977
• Docket Number: No. 20545,20545
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: GRAND STRAND CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, INC., Appellant, v. O. C. GRAVES, Jr., Mary Virginia C. Johnson, and the South Carolina National Bank, Respondents.

Page 81

239 S.E.2d 81

269 S.C. 594

GRAND STRAND CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, INC., Appellant, v. O. C. GRAVES, Jr., Mary Virginia C. Johnson, and the South Carolina National Bank, Respondents.

No. 20545.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

Nov. 17, 1977.

John R. Clarke, North Myrtle Beach, for appellant.

Ralph Hoffman, Conway, for respondent Graves.

Richard Lovelace, Conway, for respondent Johnson.

David Gravely, Myrtle Beach, for respondent South Carolina National Bank.

GREGORY, Justice:

This appeal is from the order of the lower court granting respondents' motion for an involuntary non-suit. At issue is the trial judge's refusal to admit into evidence certain business records offered by appellant in proof of its claim against respondents. We reverse.

The admission or exclusion of evidence at trial is addressed to the sound discretion of the trial judge, and his discretion will not be disturbed on appeal in the absence of an abuse of such discretion amounting to a manifest error of law. Wright v. Public Savings Life Insurance Co., 262 S.C. 285, 204 S.E.2d 57 (1974).

Appellant brought this action to foreclose a mechanics' lien on property owned by respondents and located in the area of Briarcliffe Acres. Appellant contracted with respondents to provide labor for the construction of a house on respondents' property at the rate of six dollars per man hour. Appellant had been paid $4500 for labor and materials and sought to recover $6229.61 in unpaid labor costs.

At trial appellant sought to prove the number of man hours properly chargeable to respondents' account. The hours were tabulated by the job foreman or a sub-foreman in case the foreman was not present on the job site, and these tabulations were turned over to Grand Strand's secretary. These tabulations were usually made on scraps of paper that were either handed to the secretary or left for her under her office door. Occasionally the tabulations would be called in by telephone. The secretary would enter these tabulations into a permanent ledger kept by Grand Strand for that purpose. She did not keep the scraps of paper. Payroll checks would then be issued to the various employees in accordance with the ledger entries.

Appellant's secretary identified the ledger and it was offered into evidence. On respondents' objection the trial judge refused to admit the ledger into evidence on the ground the ledger was not the best evidence of the number of man hours chargeable to respondents' account. The basis of the lower court's refusal was its finding that appellant's ledger was not a book of original entry.

Appellant was able to prove a portion of its claim by the testimony of its job foreman who maintained a personal record of the man hours worked on respondents' project. The foreman's notebook was admitted into evidence but was not sufficient to prove that respondents owed appellant any amount in excess of the $4500 that had already been paid. Appellant's sub-foreman had not kept a personal record and thus was unable to recall the number of man hours he had tabulated and turned in to Grand Strand.

As a result of the lower court's refusal to admit the ledger appellant was unable to prove respondents' indebtedness, and on motion of respondents an involuntary non-suit was granted. This appeal followed.

We have consistently recognized the rule that a party may "introduce books of account kept in the regular course of business, upon identification of the account by the persons who made and entered the...