Tag: evidence

Hotel Registration Data Considered Computer-Stored and Computer-Generated Business Records – IL Appeals Court

Super 8 and Motel 6 registration records take center stage in an Illinois appeals court’s discussion of the razor-thin difference between computer-stored and computer-generated business records.

In People v. Schwab, 2019 IL App (4th), a sexual assault defendant argued the trial court erroneously admitted his hotel check-in records during a jury trial that culminated in a guilty verdict and long prison sentence.

The prosecution offered hotel records into evidence at trial to place the defendant at a certain location and at a fixed date and time. Over the defendant’s hearsay objection, the trial court allowed the records into evidence. Defendant appealed his conviction and 25-year sentence.

Affirming, the appeals court first provided a useful gloss on hearsay rules generally and then drilled down to the specific rules governing business records.

Hearsay is an out of court statement offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted and is typically excluded for its inherent lack of reliability.  The business-records exception allows for the admission of a writing or record where (1) the writing or record was made as a memorandum or record of the event, (2) it was made in the regular course of business, and (3) it was the regular course of business to make the record at the time of the transaction or within a reasonable time thereafter.

Anyone familiar with a business can testify as to business records, and the original entrant (i.e. the person inputting the data) doesn’t have to be a witness for the records to get into evidence. [⁋ 37]

Additional foundation is required when a business record is contained on a computer.  Illinois courts recognize the distinction between (a) computer-stored records and (b) computer-generated records.

The foundation for admitting computer-generated records is less stringent than that governing computer-stored ones. Computer-generated records are deemed intrinsically more reliable than their computer-stored counterparts.

Print-outs of computer-stored records are admissible as a hearsay exception where (1) the computer equipment is recognized as standard, (2) the input is entered in the regular course of business reasonably close in time to the happening of the event recorded, and (3) the foundation testimony establishes that the source of information, method and time of preparation indicate its trustworthiness and justifies its admission. [⁋ 38]

For computer-generated records, the admissibility threshold is more relaxed: the proponent only needs to show the recording device was accurate and operating properly when the data was generated.

The Court found that the Super 8 reservation records were computer-generated (and therefore subject to less stringent admissibility rules). The hotel’s front desk clerk’s trial testimony established that the hotel’s reservation record was automatically generated by a hotel computer at the time someone books a reservation.

According to the Court, that data may have originally been input into a third-party website (like Priceline or Expedia) didn’t cast doubt on the records’ reliability.  All that mattered was that the registration record was created automatically and contemporaneously (with the on-line reservation) to qualify as computer-generated records.

The Court agreed with the defendant that two Motel 6 records offered as prosecution trial exhibits were computer-stored. The court found that the computer records created when a guest checked in required the hotel clerk to scan the guest’s identification card and to manually input the guest’s check-in and check-out times and payment information. Since this information was the end result of human data entry, the records were deemed computer-stored.

Even so, the Court found that the State sufficiently laid the foundation for the computer-stored data. The Court credited the Motel 6 hotel clerk’s testimony that the franchise’s check-in procedures were uniform and the hotel’s computer booking system was standard in the hospitality industry.  Taken together, the testimony concerning Motel 6’s integrated check-in processes and its use of industry-standard reservation software was enough to meet the computer-stored evidence admissibility threshold.

Afterwords: Despite Schwab’s disturbing fact-pattern, the case has value for civil and criminal trial practitioners alike for its trenchant discussion of business records exception to the hearsay rule and the admissibility standards for computer-generated and computer-stored records.

Subcontractor’s Failure to Get Certified Mail ‘Green Cards’ into Evidence = Draconian Trial Loss in Lien Spat

The Second District appeals court recently affirmed a harsh result against a subcontractor who failed to properly serve a Section 24 notice in accordance with the strictures of the Illinois Mechanics Lien Act.

The earth-moving subcontractor recorded a lien against a nascent Starbucks in Chicago’s western suburbs seeking payment for various change orders. It sent its lien notice to the property’s lender by certified mail but not to the property owner.

After a bench trial, the trial judge reluctantly found for the property owner defendants and held that the subcontractor’s lien notice failed to follow the Act.  The subcontractor appealed.

Affirming judgment for the property owner, the Court first emphasized the oft-cited rule that since rights created by the Act are statutory, the statutory technical and procedural requirements are strictly construed. The burden of proving that each requirement of the Act has been satisfied is on the party seeking to enforce its lien – here, the subcontractor.  But where there is no dispute that an owner actually received notice, courts will overlook technical defects.

Section 24 of the Act requires a subcontractor to serve notice of its intent to lien by certified mail or personal delivery to the record owner and lender (if known)within 90 days after completing the work on the property. 770 ILCS 60/24(a).

An exception to this notice requirement is where a general contractor’s sworn statement provides the owner notice of the subcontractor’s work and unpaid amount.

While courts will uphold a lien notice sent only to an owner (and not to the lender) since there is no concern of the owner being prejudiced or having to pay twice, the reverse isn’t true. Citing to half-century-old case law, the Court held that since notice to an owner is the ‘very substance of the basis on which a mechanic’s lien may be predicated,’, the Court refused to excuse the subcontractor’s failure to serve the owner with its lien notice even though the lender was given proper statutory notice.

And while the plaintiff attached some certified mail green (return) card copies to its written response to Defendant’s directed verdict motion at trial, the plaintiff never authenticated the cards or offered them in evidence at trial. As a result, the appeals court refused to consider the green cards as part of the appellate record. (An appeals court cannot consider documents that were not admitted into evidence at trial.)

In addition, the plaintiff’s trial testimony was conflicting. The Plaintiff’s owner’s testimony conflicted with a 2014 affidavit of mailing prepared by one of Plaintiff’s employees.  This evidentiary dissonance failed to show the owner’s actual notice of the plaintiff’s lien notice.  As a result, the trial court found that the plaintiff failed to carry its burden of proving that it complied with its Act lien notice rules.

The court then rejected the subcontractor’s argument that the owner had actual notice of its work since it saw the plaintiff performing grading work on the property and the plaintiff sent regular invoices to the owner’s agent.  However, under Illinois law, the mere presence of or owner’s knowledge that a contractor on a job is not a valid substitute for the required statutory notice.

The court also nixed the subcontractor’s claim that the owner had actual notice of the subcontractor’s work based on the sworn statements submitted to the owner from the general contractor. While courts have upheld an otherwise deficient subcontractor lien notice where sworn statements in the record plainly show the subcontractor’s identity and amounts owed.  Here, there were no sworn statements in the record. A trial witness may only testify to matters on which he/she has personal knowledge. Ill. R. Evid. 602. Since the plaintiff didn’t call to testify the owner’s construction manager – the only one who supposedly received the GC’s sworn statements (that identified plaintiff) –  there was no competent evidence that the owner received and reviewed any sworn statements that referenced the plaintiff’s work and amounts owed.

Afterwords:

This case shows how unforgiving statutory notice requirements can be in the mechanics lien context.

In hindsight, the subcontractor plaintiff should have introduced certified mail receipts into evidence.

Failing that, it should have called the owner’s construction manager as an adverse agent to lock in testimony that the general contractor furnished the owner with sworn statements and those statements sufficiently identified the subcontractor plaintiff.

15-Year ‘Course of Dealing’ Clarifies Oral Agreement for Tax Sale Notices – IL First Dist.

The would-be tax deed buyer in Wheeler Financial, Inc. v. Law Publishing Co., 2018 IL App (1st) 171495 claimed the publisher defendant’s erroneous sale date in a required tax sale notice thwarted its purchase of a pricey Chicago property.

A jury found for the publisher defendant on the buyer’s breach of oral contract claim since the plaintiff failed to properly vet the draft “Take Notice” (the statutory notice provided by a tax deed applicant that gives notice to the owner) supplied by the defendant before publication. The plaintiff appealed.

Affirming the jury verdict, the First District discusses the nature of express versus implied contracts, the use of non-pattern jury instructions and when course of dealing evidence is admissible to explain the terms of an oral agreement.

Course of dealing – Generally

There was no formal written contract between the parties. But there was a 15-year business relationship where the plaintiff would send draft tax deed petition notices to the defendant who would in turn, publish the notices as required by the Illinois tax code. This decade-and-a-half course of dealing was the basis for jury verdict for the publisher defendant.

Section 223 of the Restatement (Second) of Contracts defines a course of dealing as a sequence of previous conduct between parties to an agreement “which is fairly regarded as establishing a common basis of understanding for interpreting their expressions and other conduct.”

A course of dealing “gives meaning to or supplements or qualifies their agreement” and can be considered when determining the terms of an oral contract. Where contract terms are uncertain or doubtful and the parties have – by their conduct – placed a construction on the agreement that is reasonable, such a construction will be adopted by the court. [¶ ¶ 77-78]

Course of Dealing – The Evidence

Here, the course of dealing proof was found in both trial testimony and documents admitted in evidence.

At trial, current and former employees of the publisher defendant and plaintiff’s agent all testified it was the parties’ common practice for defendant to first provide draft Take Notices to plaintiff for its review and approval prior to publication. E-mails introduced in evidence at trial corroborated this practice.

In addition, plaintiff’s affiliated tax lien company’s own handbook contained a published policy of plaintiff reviewing all Take Notices for accuracy before the notices were published. [¶¶ 35, 83-85]

The appeals court agreed with the jury that the defendant sufficiently proved the parties course of dealing was that defendant would give plaintiff a chance to review the Take Notices before publication. And since the plaintiff failed to adhere to its contractual obligation to review and apprise the defendant of any notice errors, plaintiff could not win on its breach of contract claim. (This is because a breach of contract plaintiff’s prior material breach precludes it from recovering on a breach of contract claim.)

Jury Instructions and A Tacit Exculpatory Clause?

Since no Illinois pattern jury instruction defines “course of dealing,” the trial court instructed the jury based on Wald v. Chicago Shippers Ass’n’s (175 Ill.App.3d 607 (1988) statement that a prior course of dealing can define or qualify an uncertain oral agreement. [¶ 96] Since Wald accurately stated Illinois law on the essence and reach of course of dealing evidence, it was proper for the jury to consider the non-pattern jury instruction.

The court then rejected plaintiff’s argument that allowing the legal publisher to avoid liability was tantamount to creating an implied exculpatory clause. The plaintiff claimed that if the publisher could avoid liability for its erroneous notice date, the parties’ agreement was illusory since it allowed the defendant to breach with impunity.

The court disagreed. It held that the parties’ course of dealing created mutual obligations on the parties: plaintiff was obligated to review defendant’s Take Notices and advise of any errors while defendant was required to republish any corrected notices for free. These reciprocal duties placed enforceable obligations on the parties.

Afterwords:

Where specifics of an oral agreement are lacking, but the parties’ actions over time plainly recognize and validate a business relationship, a court will consider course of dealing evidence to give content to the arrangement.
Where course of dealing evidence establishes that a breach of contract plaintiff has assumed certain obligations, the plaintiff’s failure to perform those requirements will doom its breach of contract claim.