Opinion ID: 2364266
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Superior Court Properly Admitted the Trial Testimony of Russell Brown, the Town's Deputy Zoning Enforcement Officer and Alternate Building Official

Text: The defendants first contend that the Superior Court justice presiding over both cases erred in permitting Russell Brown (Brown), the town's Deputy Zoning Enforcement Officer and Alternate Building Official, to testify about defendants' zoning and building-code violations. The defendants insist that Brown was not qualified to testify because his appointment violated § 23-27.3-107.2 of the state building code, which permitted the local authority to appoint an alternate building official to act on behalf of the local building official during any period of disability caused by, but not limited to, illness, absence, or conflict of interest. In 2000, the town appointed Brown to serve as Deputy Zoning Enforcement Officer and Alternate Building Official. The defendants now allege that this appointment was improper under § 23-27.3-107.2 because the town's local building official was not under any disability at that time. Given this allegedly improper appointment, defendants maintain on appeal that the hearing justice erred in admitting Brown's testimony concerning defendants' zoning and building-code violations. We rebuff this argument for several reasons. Initially, we conclude that defendants failed to properly raise the propriety of Brown's appointment at trial as an alleged reason to preclude him from testifying. It is axiomatic that we will not entertain on appeal an issue that the aggrieved party did not specifically raise before the trial court. E.g., Harvey Realty v. Killingly Manor Condominium Association, 787 A.2d 465, 467 (R.I.2001). When an issue is not explicitly raised in the trial court with sufficient clarity so that the trial justice may appropriately respond to the claims of a party, we shall not consider the alleged error on appeal. Scully v. Matarese, 422 A.2d 740, 741 (R.I. 1980). In addition, the party must raise the issue in reasonably clear and distinct form before the trial justice. Town of Smithfield v. Fanning, 602 A.2d 939, 942 (R.I.1992). Here, defendants assert that they raised the issue of Brown's appointment during their voir dire of this witness. They also maintain that they asked him during cross-examination whether the town's regular zoning enforcement officer was ill or incapacitated in any way. But it does not appear from the record that they specifically objected on this ground when Brown took the stand to testify, nor did they argue that Brown's improper appointment precluded him from testifying at trial. At no time did they move to strike his testimony or to bar him from testifying because of the allegedly improper manner or method of his appointment to office. Merely by asking questions during the trial that were relevant to this issue while they were examining Brown, defendants, we hold, failed to afford the trial justice an opportunity to rule on whether the manner and method of Brown's appointment disqualified him from testifying at trial. Hence, they cannot raise this issue now for the first time on this appeal. Moreover, had defendants properly raised this issue below, the town represents that it would have introduced evidence showing that the local building official was in fact under a disability when it appointed Brown to his office. In its brief, the town posits that it originally created the positions of Deputy Zoning Enforcement Officer and Alternate Building Official because the local building official had a conflict of interest with two of the defendants in this action. Given defendants' failure to preserve this issue for appeal, we will not decide whether Brown's appointment violated the provisions of § 23-27.3-107.2. Avoiding such first-impression evidentiary disputes, which lack the vetting they should receive during a trial, is precisely one of the reasons why we will not permit parties to raise issues such as this for the first time on appeal. Because defendants did not object at trial to Brown's testimony or move to strike it because of his alleged unauthorized appointment, the town never had the opportunity to present evidence to counter this assertion. Therefore, we will not now entertain this argument for the first time on appeal. In any event, even assuming, arguendo, that the town impermissibly appointed Brown to the position of Alternate Building Official, we would still decide that the Superior Court properly allowed Brown to testify. Under the Rhode Island Rules of Evidence, trial justices have broad discretion to admit the testimony of witnesses. See R.I. R. Evid. 601. Nothing in Brown's testimony suggested that he was incompetent to testify about his first-hand observations of defendants' property. And defendants do not cite any statute, rule, or other authority that would limit such testimony to duly appointed zoning and building officials. Therefore, for these reasons, we hold that the Superior Court did not commit reversible error when it admitted Brown's testimony in both the zoning and building enforcement cases.