Opinion ID: 2508433
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Reliability of Affidavit

Text: Graham contends that the trial court improperly relied on respondents' assertions in Makawi's second affidavit that Richardson and Carvajal were unauthorized to receive service of process because the trial court found in its first order that Makawi's first affidavit was unconvincing. Because this finding has not been appealed or amended, Graham argues it is therefore the law of the case. This argument lacks merit. Rule 59(e) allows a court to reconsider its earlier ruling. Moreover, the substantive assertions that the judge found to be unconvincing in the first affidavit were either not repeated in the second affidavit or were portions on which the trial court did not rely when it granted respondents' Rule 59(e) motion. The result advanced by Graham would deny the fact finder's right to accept all, some, or none of the testimony of a particular witness. See, e.g., Glover v. Columbia Hospital of Richland County, 236 S.C. 410, 418, 114 S.E.2d 565, 569 (1960) (The well-established rule in this state is that if there is any testimony whatever to go to the jury on an issue involved in a cause, or even if more than one inference can be drawn from the testimony then it is the duty of the judge to submit the cause to the jury. This is true, even if witnesses for the plaintiff contradict each other, or if a witness himself in his testimony makes conflicting statements.) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Graham would have us hold that, having found one affidavit unreliable, the trial court was precluded from accepting any statement from Makawi as reliable throughout the remainder of the proceedings. Thus, the trial court did not err in finding some statements in Makawi's second affidavit credible despite having found that the first affidavit was not.