MAY, Judge.
Karan L. Gilday and James K. Gilday appeal the final judgment on their claims for damage to their vehicle. They raise three issues, which we reorder and restate as:
1. Whether the trial court erred in entering final judgment on the Gildays' Motion for Summary Judgment;
2. Whether the trial court should have ruled on the Gildays' Motion to Compel; and
3. Whether they were entitled to attorney's fees.
We affirm.
On June 3, 2010, a 2008 Toyota 4Runner owned by the Gildays and driven by Karan L. Gilday collided with a vehicle owned by Edward W. Ochoa and Jeanine L. Motsay, and driven by Jeanine L. Motsay. Motsay admitted at the scene she did not stop at a red light in time to avoid the collision. As a result of the damage to the 4Runner, James and Karan, at various times, communicated with Motsay's insurer, Ameriprise Auto and Home Insurance ("Ameriprise") in an effort to resolve their property damage claim. The Gildays were not satisfied with the initial offers Ameriprise made, and they took the 4Runner to a Toyota dealer to be repaired. The bill was $6,257.83, and the Gildays paid it. They also paid Enterprise Leasing Company $1,332.00 for car rental.
Further negotiations between the parties were unsuccessful, and on May 31, 2012, the Gildays sued Motsay and Ochoa in the Marion Superior Court.
Motsay and Ochoa answered and asserted as affirmative defenses that the Gildays' damages were caused by Karan's own carelessness and negligent acts or omissions, and that the Gildays may not have mitigated their damages. In their Reply to Affirmative Defense/Counterclaim, the Gildays also asserted affirmative defenses, which are not at issue in this appeal.
The Gildays then propounded to Motsay and Ochoa Interrogatories, Requests for Production and Requests for Admissions. After answers, documents and responses were provided, the Gildays filed a "Motion to Compel and/or for Trial Rule 37 Sanctions." (Id. at 27.) They asserted Motsay had not produced certain communications between the Gildays and the defendants' agents, including their insurance company and any adjusting companies, and between Motsay and her agents. The Gildays argued that Motsay's failure to provide the information was spoliation that warranted sanctions under Ind. Trial Rule 37(B)(2). Motsay responded to the Motion to Compel but the record does not indicate there was a hearing.
On December 2, 2012, the Gildays filed what they captioned as "Plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment." (Id. at 270.) The body of the motion indicates they sought entry of partial summary judgment in the amounts of $6,257.83 for automobile repair, $1,332.00 for vehicle rental, and $32.31 for repair travel time and mileage reimbursement. The Gildays also asked for statutory attorney's fees.
In response, Motsay and Ochoa offered an affidavit from Mark Jungwirth, an employee of Ameriprise, reporting on his review of the records of contact among Ameriprise, its agents, and the Gildays. The Gildays moved to strike the affidavit. The trial court set a hearing on "Plaintiffs Motion to Strike parts of the Affidavit of Mark Jungwirth on 2/28/14 at 10:00am." (Id. at 444.) The record is unclear whether at that hearing the trial court was addressing both the motion to strike and the motion for summary judgment, but issues raised in both motions and the motion for discovery sanctions were discussed.
On June 12, 2014, the trial court issued Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Judgment Entry:
(Id. at 8-9.)
The trial court presumably determined entry of a final judgment was appropriate because the Gildays were not entitled to additional damages. In their Amended Complaint, the Gildays asked for "damages, including, but not limited to property damage, repair, related expenses, lost revenue, and prejudgment interest." (Id. at 13.) The trial court awarded the cost of repair, the rental car cost, and some miscellaneous expenses. That was not error:
Dado v. Jeeninga, 743 N.E.2d 291, 294 (Ind.Ct.App.2001). The Gildays asked for the cost of the repair to the vehicle, not any reduction in fair market value, and they were awarded it. They recovered what they were entitled to with respect to the damage to their vehicle.
The Gildays also requested prejudgment interest. A court may award prejudgment interest as part of a judgment, Ind.Code § 34-51-4-7, but a plaintiff is not entitled to pre-judgment interest unless, within one year after a claim is filed in the court or any longer period determined by the court to be necessary on a showing of good cause, the plaintiff makes a written offer of settlement to the defendant. Ind.Code § 34-51-4-6.
The Gildays do not acknowledge in their opening brief
The Gildays argue the trial court erred when it declined to rule on
As the Gildays do not support these allegations of error with cogent argument, legal authority, or citation to the record, we will not entertain them. See, e.g., Dickes v. Felger, 981 N.E.2d 559, 562 (Ind.Ct.App.2012) (a party waives an issue on appeal where the party does not develop a cogent argument or provide adequate citation to authority and portions of the record); and see Ind. Appellate Rule 46(A)(8) (contentions in appellant's brief must be supported by cogent reasoning and citations to authorities, statutes, and the appendix or parts of the record on appeal).
To support their claim the defendants "admitted to having destroyed some of the evidence" and "refused to produce" the rest, the Gildays direct us to pages 27 and 171 of their appendix (destruction of evidence) and pages 263-64 (refusal to produce). Those pages of the record do not support the Gildays' statements, and their statements amount to a mischaracterization of the record. Page twenty-seven is part of the Gildays' own Motion to Compel, and nothing on that page reflects any admission by the defendants that they destroyed evidence. Page 171 is part of a letter from defendants' counsel to James Gilday addressing Gilday's objections to some of the defendants' discovery responses. Nothing on page 171 says, or even suggests, the defendants "admitted to having destroyed some of the evidence." Pages 263 and 264 of the appendix are also part of the Gildays' own pleadings, in this case their reply in support of their motion to compel. While the Gildays assert in that reply that some documents were not produced, nothing on those pages supports their allegation in their appellate brief that the defendants "refused" to produce them.
The Gildays continue in their reply brief to mischaracterize the record. They say "[i]t is undisputed that Defendants' agent, Ameriprise, destroyed documents for which Plaintiffs sought spoliation sanctions." (Appellant's Reply Br. at 5.) That statement was not only explicitly "disputed," it is also a mischaracterization of the record. The Gildays direct us to "MTS Response ¶¶ 7, 12," but they do not include a page number to indicate where in the appendix such document might be found. We remind the Gildays of the long-standing rule that "we are not authorized to search the record in order to reverse a judgment," Mackey v. State, 187 Ind. 411, 119 N.E. 711, 711 (1918), but we will presume the Gildays are referring to "Defendants' response to Plaintiffs' Motion to Strike," where paragraphs 7 and 12 are found on pages 431 and 433.
In paragraph seven, the defendants acknowledge two instances in which a part of an Ameriprise file "may have indeed been either lost or destroyed." (App. at 431.) But later in the same paragraph they explicitly say "The Defendants and Ameriprise have never admitted that these documents were `destroyed.' It is in fact uncertain what happened to these documents." (Id.) Nor does paragraph twelve support the Gildays' statement "[i]t is undisputed that [Ameriprise] destroyed documents." That paragraph indicates only that Ameriprise was "unable to produce copies" of certain checks or enclosure letters.
We addressed similar mischaracterizations of the record in Young v. Butts, 685 N.E.2d 147, 151 (Ind.Ct.App.1997). Young and Butts were involved in an automobile collision. Young's counsel asserted on appeal that Butts was speeding at the time of the accident. After noting that Butts testified she was driving sixty miles per hour, Young's counsel flatly asserted the "speed limit in this area was posted at fifty-five (55) miles per hour." Id. Young's counsel did not direct us to any evidence in the record in support of that assertion, and our independent search of the record did not reveal any. Rather, the evidence in the record was that the speed limit was sixty-five miles per hour.
We noted:
Id. at 150. There, as in the case before us, the page of the record to which counsel directed us included no such admission nor any statement that could be interpreted as such an admission. Id. at 150-51.
We found Young's appeal frivolous and in bad faith because Young's counsel made
Id. at 151. We directed the trial court to impose sanctions in the form of an award of damages to Young's opponent. Id. at 152. The Gildays' mischaracterizations of the record before us are objectionable for the same reason; their representation that the defendants spoliated evidence by destroying it might, if true, "directly affect the propriety of" the trial court's actions.
Nor did the Gildays provide cogent argument supported by legal authority as required by our rules. The Gildays assert "[d]estruction or loss of documents represents spoliation, which should be sanctioned pursuant to Indiana Trial Rule 37(A)(4)." (Appellant's Br. at 8.) That rule, captioned "award of expenses of motion," provides for payment of expenses in some situations where a motion to compel is granted, but it does not support the statement "[d]estruction or loss of documents represents spoliation." As explained above, the Gildays offer no support in the record for their allegation of "destruction" of evidence. Nor do they offer legal argument, or even explanation, why mere failure to produce documents, because of "loss" or some other reason, amounts to "spoliation." We accordingly may not entertain the Gilday's allegation on appeal that the trial court erred because it did not rule on their Motion to Compel.
The Gildays request attorney's fees under Ind.Code § 34-52-1-1. They present their claim as one that was only "theoretical or inchoate at the time of the Judgment." (Brief of Appellant at 12) Under § 34-52-1-1,
Dunno v. Rasmussen, 980 N.E.2d 846, 850-851 (Ind.Ct.App.2012) (case citations omitted).
The Gildays had the burden of proving such fees were warranted. Chrysler Motor Corp. v. Resheter, 637 N.E.2d 837, 838 (Ind.Ct.App.1994), trans. denied. An award of attorney's fees lies within the trial court's discretion, and we will not reweigh the evidence or disturb the trial court's decision absent an abuse of discretion. Posey v. Lafayette Bank & Trust Co., 583 N.E.2d 149, 152 (Ind.Ct. App.1991), trans. denied.
The trial court heard argument concerning the defenses asserted and found the defendants' conduct did not rise to the level that would allow the imposition of attorney's fees. There was ample evidence in the record to permit that finding, and we will not reweigh it.
The trial court did not err in granting final judgment on the Gildays' claims, the Gildays have not provided cogent argument the trial court should have ruled on their motion to compel, and the Gildays are not entitled to attorney's fees. We accordingly affirm.
Affirmed.
BARNES, J., and PYLE, J., concur.