Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. Knox Homes

Citation: Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. v. Knox Homes Corp., 343 F.2d 887 (5th Cir. 1965).

The plaintiff carrier filed a claim based on certain undercharges on freight. The carrier attempted to meet its burden of proof by offering into evidence freight waybills prepared by computer. The defendant did not object to admission of this evidence. The waybills were properly authenticated and admitted under the Business Records Aet. At the close of plaintiff’s evidence, both parties moved for a directed verdict. The trial court granted defendant's motion on the ground that the carrier had failed to make out a prima facie case. The court reasoned that the evidence was not sufficient to determine the correct weight of the shipments.

The Fifth Circuit reversed, holding that the computer-generated evidence was sufficient under the Business Records Act. The waybills were held to be a record of business transactions made in the regular course of business, and were thus admissible as evidence of those transactions. In addition, since the shipper had previously paid the freight waybills with no claim that the charges were erroneous, the shipper had in effect admitted the accuracy of the weights shown.