Opinion ID: 2388854
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Wrongful Repossession

Text: Franklin's liability for wrongful repossession must rest in Smith's proof that he was current in his contractual payments. (Compliance with other terms of the conditional sales contract is not disputed on appeal; nor was the contract itself asserted to be void. See Vines v. Hodges, 422 F.Supp. 1292 (D.D.C.1976).) Smith testified that he was current in those payments when Franklin repossessed the automobile. Franklin introduced testimonial and documentary evidence that at least one payment had not been made. Smith was then permitted to reopen his case and to introduce, over objection, a checkbook stub which purported to show that Smith had made the disputed payment. The checkbook stub recites a date of March 9, 1973, and an amount of $139 to the order of Franklin Investment. There is an additional notation of Replaced 3-16-71 with cash Deposit. The stub was removed from what was apparently a spiral-bound book containing stubs for previously-written checks, and there was no entry on the stub indicating balance forward. Smith testified that the stub was a part of the ledgers of Cragers Associates, a firm in which Smith and one Heath were partners. He further testified that Heath delivered the check represented by the stub to Franklin. Smith's counsel specifically eschewed proffer of the stub on the theory that it was a business record, and no attempt was made to so qualify it. Rather, the stub was proffered and accepted, over objection, as demonstrative evidence. As demonstrative evidence, the checkbook stub demonstrates neither that a check was written nor that it was delivered; it merely demonstrates that the stub was completed. In order to demonstrate that the check was written, the stub would first have to qualify as a business record of the transaction, Super.Ct.Civ.R. 43-I, or come within some other exception to the rule against hearsay. See Laas v. Scott, 26 App. D.C. 354 (1905); Nall v. Brennan, 324 Mo. 565, 23 S.W.2d 1053, 1057 (1930); Shea v. McKeon, 264 App.Div. 573, 35 N.Y.S.2d 962 (1942). Cf. Sabatino v. Curtiss National Bank, 415 F.2d 632 (5th Cir. 1969) (qualification of checkbook stub under the now-repealed Federal Business Records Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1732 (1970)); Fed.Rule of Evidence 803(6), (7). Since neither of these was shown, this case is similar to Nall v. Brennan, supra , in which the checkstubs . . were not shown to have been kept in the regular course of business and did not show intelligibly and with reasonable definiteness the facts sought to be established by them. 23 S.W.2d at 1057. Admission of the stub in this case, therefore, was error. And where, as here, the material fact sought to be established by the erroneously admitted evidence was the subject of direct evidentiary conflict, there must be a new trial. Moore v. Langdon, 2 Mackey 127, 47 Am.Rep. 262 (D.C.Sup.1882); Lipman Bros. v. Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co., 149 Me. 199, 100 A.2d 246, 254-55 (1953).