Opinion ID: 1195492
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: The award to the Contractor of increased dome construction costs.

Text: The judgment awarded to the Contractor four items of damages totalling $162,987.12, related to increased dome construction costs: (a) $32,797.09 for welding dome skin joints; (b) $17,584.28 for deletion of Alternate No. 2; (c) $60,432.75 for cost of welding dome structural connections; (d) $52,173.00 for reimbursement of jobsite and other indirect expense for 51 calendar days required by Items (a), (b) and (c). Although not segregated in the judgment, the amount awarded for jobsite and other indirect expense was based on findings which computed these costs for each item as follows: (a) 18 calendar days at $1,023 per day, or $18,414 (b) 15 calendar days at $1,023 per day, or $15,345 (c) 18 calendar days at $1,023 per day, or $18,414 On their respective appeals, the Contractor contends that the total award for increased dome construction costs should have been $478,975.28, and the State contends that no award should have been made. However, with respect to item (b), the award for deletion of Alternate No. 2, the State concedes that the Contractor is entitled to a judgment in this amount unless the claim should be denied for the reason considered in Part V. Since the factual basis for this item is not significant here, further mention of it will be omitted in this Part. The contract specifications for the joining of the structural elements and of the skin panels of the observatory dome were the subject of much dispute between the Contractor and the State during construction. The trial court found that less expensive welds than those insisted upon by the State would have satisfied the specifications, and awarded to the Contractor additional compensation in the amount of its increased costs, as determined by the court. The Contractor asserts that it was entitled to a larger award, but does not include any question with respect to the inadequacy of the award in its statement of the questions presented by its appeal and does not refer to the inadequacy of the award in its statement of the points on which it relies in its appeal. The only particulars in which the findings with respect to these costs are alleged by the Contractor to be erroneous are that they differed from the allegations of the claim presented by the Contractor to the State. The Contractor contended below that the contract permitted it to utilize other optional methods of performance in erecting the dome, as well as the less expensive welds, and that the State's insistence on its interpretation of the specifications increased the Contractor's costs in a total amount of $478,975.28. Upon conflicting testimony, the trial court found that in these other respects the State's interpretation of the specifications was correct. The Contractor points to no error in these findings, other than the rejection by the trial court of the testimony offered by the Contractor as to the meaning of the specifications and the trial court's acceptance of the testimony offered by the State. [W]here the trial court, sitting without a jury, has made its factual determinations, its [f]indings of fact shall not be set aside unless clearly erroneous, and due regard shall be given to the opportunity of the trial court to judge of the credibility of the witnesses. H.R.C.P. Rule 52(a). It is for the trial court to determine whether and to what extent a witness is worthy of credit, and to give to his testimony the weight that it deserves. The court may accept or reject the testimony of a witness in whole or in part. Shinn v. Edwin Yee, Ltd., 57 Haw. 215, 219, 553 P.2d 733, 737 (1976). We have reviewed the testimony and conclude that there was substantial evidence in the record to support the findings which the Contractor challenges, they are not clearly erroneous and they cannot be set aside. J.A. Thompson & Son v. State, supra . The State does not question the findings of the trial court with respect to the dome construction specifications, but attacks the findings with respect to the extra costs incurred by the Contractor in welding the joints in accordance with the State's interpretation of the specifications and the jobsite and indirect costs resulting from the deletion of Alternate No. 2. The State contends that the cost data in the claim was inadmissible hearsay and that opinion testimony based on such data was equally inadmissible. The evidence before the trial court in support of the Contractor's claim for these costs consisted of the claim submitted by the Contractor to the State, admitted in evidence over the State's objection as Exhibit 85, [8] and the testimony of an officer or employee of the Contractor, a Mr. Wilcox, who prepared the claim. There was also in evidence an analysis of the claim prepared by a consulting engineer employed by the State, whose conclusions as to the Contractor's costs were, the State contends, drawn solely from the data set forth in Exhibit 85. Mr. Wilcox was permitted to testify, over the State's objection, that the claim fairly represented the increased costs incurred by the Contractor attributable to the various items of its claim. No evidence, other than the testimony of Mr. Wilcox, was offered to substantiate the cost data contained in the claim. We are faced, at this point, with the question whether the inadmissibility of the Contractor's evidence may be asserted in support of the State's contention that the findings of the trial court were not supported by competent evidence. The rule has been stated: Where evidence was, despite objection, improperly admitted by the court below, and the decision appealed from is not reversed on this ground, the evidence improperly admitted will, for the purpose of the appellate review, ordinarily be treated as if it were not in the record. So, in connection with the rule that where the trial is to the court, the decision need not be reversed because of the improper reception of evidence, since it will be assumed that such evidence was not considered in reaching the decision, it has been said that in reviewing the decision the appellate court should ignore the presence in the record of such evidence. 5 Am.Jur.2d, Appeal and Error, § 737 (1962). We have indicated agreement. In Tanaka v. Mitsunaga, 43 Haw. 119, 127 (1959), and in Lennen & Newell v. Clark Enterprises, 51 Haw. 233, 238, 456 P.2d 231, 235 (1969), we quoted with approval: An appellate court will not reverse a judgment in a non-jury case because of the admission of incompetent evidence, unless all of the competent evidence is insufficient to support the judgment or unless it affirmatively appears that the incompetent evidence induced the court to make an essential finding which would not otherwise have been made. Builders Steel Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 179 F.2d 377, 379 (8th Cir.1950). It is appropriate, therefore, for us to consider the competency of the evidence in the record which supports the court's findings, upon a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, but our inquiry is at an end if we discover any sufficient competent evidence upon which the findings may rest, notwithstanding that incompetent evidence is also in the record. The State's challenge to the direct evidence of the Contractor's costs, as contained in Exhibit 85, must be fruitless if the record contains competent opinion evidence in support of the findings. Mr. Wilcox was presented as an expert witness and evidence of his qualifications to express an opinion as to costs incurred in construction was received. In large part, his testimony was in response to a general question which asked him to go through the claim and explain the sections, what they comprise, what they represent, and, basically how they were prepared. His testimony demonstrated that he had no knowledge of the matter prior to May 1969, at which time he was executive vice president of one of the contracting firms which made up the joint venture referred to here as the Contractor and was asked to visit the site of the work for the purpose of ascertaining whether there was any basis for a claim for extra compensation by the Contractor. The data with respect to the time spent in the performance of the welding work by men and equipment of the Contractor, and the daily jobsite costs incurred during the period of performance, were obtained from summaries of the Contractor's records provided by other officers and employees of the Contractor. Upon this foundation, Mr. Wilcox was asked for and gave his opinion that the amounts stated in the claim fairly represented the costs of the delays and other problems attributable to the method of welding required by the State. The State objected to this question only upon the ground that it called for the answer that only this Court can give. The objection was overruled and the testimony was admitted. The State has not presented any issue, on this appeal, with respect to the qualifications of Mr. Wilcox as an expert witness as to the Contractor's costs or with respect to the propriety of the receipt of expert opinion evidence on that subject, and must be taken as having waived the objection made below that opinion testimony was not admissible as to the Contractor's costs. The contention here is that the opinion testimony was inadmissible under the rule of State v. Davis, 53 Haw. 582, 499 P.2d 663 (1972), because based on facts and data which were not in evidence and which could come from this witness only as inadmissible hearsay. State v. Davis, supra , dealt with an opinion of an expert witness which relied heavily upon the opinion of another expert who was not before the court, and is not in point here. We note that there is substantial authority for the receipt of expert opinion testimony, notwithstanding that it is based upon an investigation made by the witness for the purpose of the litigation and upon facts ascertained through hearsay. Cf. 3 Weinstein's Evidence ¶ 703[02] (1976). It is said to be for the trial court to determine, in the exercise of its discretion, whether the expert's sources of information are sufficiently reliable to warrant reception of the opinion. Standard Oil Co. v. Moore, 251 F.2d 188, 221 (9th Cir.1958). But we need not proceed further with this question. The objection made by the State to the question calling for the opinion went only to the subject matter, and did not state any objection to the admission of hearsay evidence. The ground of objection which is now asserted was not raised and properly preserved in the trial court. Accordingly, it will not be considered on appeal and the opinion testimony in question will be considered to be competent evidence in the record. Low v. Honolulu Rapid Transit, 50 Haw. 582, 445 P.2d 372 (1968). The findings of fact made by the trial court with respect to the amounts of the Contractor's extra costs are presumptively correct and the State bears the burden of pointing out specifically wherein they are erroneous. Upon a challenge to a finding for alleged insufficiency of the evidence, we will not search the record to discover what evidence supports the finding. The burden on the party seeking to overthrow a finding for insufficiency of the evidence includes the presentation of an analysis of the evidence which is sufficient to demonstrate its insufficiency. Campbell v. DePonte, 57 Haw. 510, 560 P.2d 1303, rehearing den., 57 Haw. 564, 560 P.2d 1303 (1977). The State made no effort to show that the opinion testimony of Mr. Wilcox, if properly admitted, did not support the conclusions embodied in the findings. It is apparent that the testimony of Mr. Wilcox would have supported findings of Contractor's costs in considerably larger amounts. We have no occasion, therefore, to attempt to match the amounts determined by the trial court with the data, calculations and conclusions contained in Exhibit 85 and incorporated in Mr. Wilcox's testimony. There being competent evidence in the record, and no showing to the contrary, it will be presumed that the trial court relied thereon in making his determinations. Shinn v. Yee, supra. The State has failed to carry the burden of showing that the findings of the trial court in support of the judgment for the Contractor are clearly erroneous by reason of the insufficiency of the evidence.