Court Opinion

ID: 9856984
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 07:09:37.337363+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:37:46.659373
License: Public Domain

STEELMAN, Judge,
dissenting.
I must respectfully dissent from the majority opinion that reverses the jury verdict based upon its interpretation of the Supreme Court decision in Raritan River Steel Co. v. Cherry, Bekaert & Holland, 322 N.C. 200, 367 S.E.2d 609 (1988).
*387The majority opinion, based upon Raritan, cites two concerns as to plaintiffs’ reliance upon the MLS report: (1) the information was not received directly from defendants by plaintiffs; and (2) the manner of the dissemination of the information raised concerns about its reliability.
Raritan involved a suit by creditors against debtor’s certified public accountant for negligent misrepresentation of the net worth of the debtor. One of the creditors, Raritan River Steel Company, did not rely directly upon the accountant’s audited financial statement, but rather upon a Dun & Bradstreet report that referenced the accountants as the source of its information. The Supreme Court held that the trial court properly dismissed Raritan’s claim against the accountants, stating:
Our holding that reliance on the audited financial statements is required in these kinds of cases stems in part from an understanding of the audit report. An audit report represents the auditor’s opinion of the accuracy of the client’s financial statements at a given period of time. See generally R. Gormley, The Law of Accountants and Auditors 1-26 (1981). The financial statements themselves are the representations of management, not the auditor. B. Ferst, Basic Accounting for Lawyers 11 (3d ed. 1975). Isolated statements in the report, particularly the net worth figure, do not meaningfully stand alone; rather, they are interdependent and can be fully understood and justifiably relied on only when considered in the context of the entire report, including any qualifications of the auditor’s opinion and any explanatory footnotes included in the statements.
Raritan at 207, 367 S.E.2d at 613.
The representation in the MLS report that the Proctors’ house was connected to city sewer is in no manner interconnected with any of the other representations in the report. Rather, this representation stands completely alone.
The instant case is procedurally in a different posture than Raritan. The complaint in Raritan affirmatively stated that Raritan Steel had relied upon representations of net worth contained in the Dun & Bradstreet report, not the accountant’s report. There was nothing in the record showing that the information in the Dun. & Bradstreet report was the same as that contained in the accountant’s report. In the instant case, this court is reviewing the trial court’s denial of defendants’ motion for a directed verdict. As noted by the *388majority, we are required to view the evidence presented in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, and can only overturn the trial court’s decision if the evidence was insufficient to support a verdict in favor of plaintiffs.
In the instant case, the evidence was uncontroverted that the Proctors’ agent, Mintz, entered into the MLS listing that the property was served by city sewer. It is also uncontroverted that this information was false. There was evidence that plaintiffs’ real estate agent, Garrabrant, printed out a copy of the MLS listing, and that this printout failed to contain the language “Information deemed RELIABLE but not guaranteed.” However, this evidence does not change the fundamental fact that the express representation of the sewer connection was false, and that the actions of Garrabrant in no way altered this representation.
Thus, based upon the unaltered state of the representation that the property was not served by city sewer, and that this representation was not interconnected with other representations in the MLS report, the rationale of Raritan is not applicable.
There was evidence presented at trial that plaintiffs relied upon this representation in purchasing the property. I would hold that the evidence pertaining to the printing of the MLS listing by Garrabrant does not support the dismissal of plaintiffs’ claims, but rather goes to the question of whether the plaintiffs relied upon the MLS listing, and whether any reliance was justifiable. It was for the jury to determine the credibility of the witnesses, and the weight to be given to the evidence. The trial court properly submitted the issue of justifiable reliance to the jury. I would hold that no error was committed by the trial court in denying defendants’ motion for directed verdict.