Michael Degrasse v. Christine Hart

THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

SUPREME COURT

In Case No. 2023-0419, Michael Degrasse v. Christine Hart,
the court on December 14, 2023, issued the following order:

The court has reviewed the written arguments and the record submitted
on appeal, and has determined to resolve the case by way of this order. See
Sup. Ct. R. 20(2). The defendant, Christine Hart, appeals an order of the
Circuit Court (McIntyre, J.), following a hearing on the merits, awarding
$6,429.72 in damages to the plaintiff, Michael Degrasse, for the conversion of a
number of items of the plaintiff’s personal property. On appeal, the defendant
challenges the trial court’s findings that she converted the items of property at
issue or owed the damages awarded by the trial court. We affirm.

It is the burden of the appealing party, in this case the defendant, to
provide a record on appeal that is sufficient to decide the issues she is raising.
See Bean v. Red Oak Prop. Mgmt., 151 N.H. 248, 250 (2004). “If the
[appealing] party intends to argue in the supreme court that a finding or
conclusion is unsupported by the evidence or is contrary to the evidence, the
[appealing] party shall include in the record a transcript of all evidence relevant
to such finding or conclusion.” Sup. Ct. R. 15(3). In the absence of a
transcript of an evidentiary hearing, we assume that the evidence supports the
trial court’s findings of fact, and we review its decision only for errors of law
appearing on the face of the order. See Bean, 151 N.H. at 250. These rules are
not relaxed for self-represented parties. See In the Matter of Birmingham &
Birmingham, 154 N.H. 51, 56-57 (2006).

The defendant has not provided a transcript of the evidentiary hearing
held in the trial court. We note that, although the defendant has appended to
her brief several documents that she claims contradict the trial court’s
findings, the plaintiff suggests that such documents constitute “new evidence,”
and do not correspond to the “numerous” exhibits introduced at trial. In the
absence of a transcript, we cannot determine whether the documents provided
by the defendant were introduced at trial, see Flaherty v. Dixey, 158 N.H. 385,
387 (2009) (“On appeal, we consider only evidence and documents presented to
the trial court.”), and we must assume that the testimony and other evidence
presented at trial supports the trial court’s findings that the defendant
converted the items of property at issue and owes the damages awarded by the
trial court, see Bean, 151 N.H. at 250.

Affirmed.

MacDonald, C.J., and Bassett, Hantz Marconi, and Donovan, JJ.,
concurred.

Timothy A. Gudas,
Clerk

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