Court Opinion

ID: 9607728
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:01:31.083053+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:39.634257
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice,
specially concurring.
Our first concern with this controversy was with a motion to dismiss the June 1982 appeal for failure to comply with either I.R.C.P. 54(b) or I.A.R. 12. To my surprise, the motion was denied and appellants were given the opportunity to retreat to the district court in order to obtain proper certification. This was a complete break with precedent, but the Court minutes will reflect that Chief Justice Bakes had three other votes when he signed the order— mine being not one of the four.
The original Supreme Court file in this case stacks at least ten to twelve inches— which is not including the record and transcripts certified here from the trial court. In the almost four years the controversy has been in this system, we have been confronted with a great number of motions — some of little consequence, but at least one of much consequence — as we would later hear more at oral argument. This was a motion filed by appellant, L. Murgoitio on November 10, 1983, which sought a stay of the final judgment in one respect, that being that L. Murgoitio was required to pay rent to a court-appointed receiver on allegedly partnership property which was in the possession of L. Murgoi*580tio, notwithstanding that he had filed a $300,000 appeal bond. All other portions of the final judgment had been stayed by the district court. The motion, supported by affidavits, gave a good summary of the reasoning and objective sought.
In order to preserve the status quo of this case it is necessary that this court stay the one portion of the judgment entered in the lower court requiring the payment of rent. Although all other portions of the judgment have been stayed the court did not stay that portion dealing with rent. As is noted above and in the Affidavit of the Appellant if this court refuses to stay that portion of the lower court’s judgment dealing with the payment of rent it will be necessary to commence liquidation of the business. The Appellant should not be required to commence liquidation of his business unless he is unsuccessful on appeal and until after this court has fully heard this matter especially since he has posted a $300,000 bond.
The motion for a stay was strongly opposed. The Supreme Court file on this motion alone appears to be at a glance at least in excess of 150 pages. Eventually it was denied, but only after having received considerable consideration and discussion by the full court membership.
All of which is to say only that there were important decisions made in this case long before January 1986 oral argument by counsel who were addressing a court panel, two of the members of which had not participated in the earlier days. I do not suggest that they are disadvantaged by reason thereof. What I do say is that, for myself, I have joined the opinion of the Court because of an inability, presently, to analytically point out that it is in error. To feel entirely comfortable with our opinion would require a more in-depth review than time has permitted under the Court’s rules which are ever-increasingly attuned more to quantity.
In particular, while my concern is a general one addressed to all of the issues on the appeal, a genuine worry is the challenge to the trial court’s imposition of rental and interest — which was indirectly decided, or, at the least, forecast when the stay order was denied — and which, as the brief of L. Murgoitio argues is unsupported by statutory or case law, and asserts has here resulted in the bankruptcy of a partner in what was a financially sound partnership.
Another large concern here — one which apparently troubles me alone, is the failure of the parties, and in turn the trial court, to bring in the wives whose names appear on some of the deeds of acquisition. It is more than a matter of parties, and would also seem to bear heavily on the weighing of the evidence. It is readily understood that ownership of the various parcels in a husband and wife marital community would not necessarily be at odds with the wife (wives) allowing the husband to commit that property to a partnership venture, i.e., a business arrangement. Much difficulty is experienced in comprehending how the proceedings below can be said to have divested a married woman of her interest in real property — which was conveyed naming her as a grantee — in a lawsuit to which she was not party.
In sum, to my mind, this is a case where the Court’s production rules should be relaxed and our judgment withheld until enough time has been allowed to provide a more certain feeling that the issues are fully understood and adequately addressed. Presently, my own belief is that there is more involved than just a factual equation as to how the parties intended the property to be owned, i.e., individually or as partnership property.
Our opinion makes no mention whatever of Part III of the L. Murgoitio Appellant’s Opening Brief, where issue is drawn as to the preparation of the trial court findings. The factual background here is unlike any other which we have before considered. As the district court itself wrote, in passing on plaintiff’s objections to the findings:
Plaintiff objects that the findings and conclusions have been prepared by coun*581sel for the defendant J.C. Murgoitio. This court is without word processing equipment or even secretarial assistance, except as available through the Office of the Clerk of the Court. In view of the fact that the decision here is extensive and detailed the court took advantage of the offer of defendant’s counsel to prepare the findings, conclusions and judgment by use of counsel’s word processing equipment and secretarial help. Following the preparation of the same, this court reviewed the findings, the conclusions and the judgment carefully, and made certain changes in wording; the documents were then retyped with the help of counsel’s word processing equipment and secretarial help and checked by the court. In view of the voluminousness of the documents necessary here, required by the extensive proceedings which were covered in them, I feel that it was practical and appropriate to accept such assistance in order to facilitate preparation and processing of this matter particularly in view of the appeal which has been pending in this matter for some considerable time. R., p. 565-566.
This may very well be the time, if ever, to completely take trial advocates out of the function of preparing a trial court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law. This Court has admonished against the practice, but the practice continues. Here it may have reached its zenith.
One may well wonder at the propriety of one party to a lawsuit, either party, offering the resources of his or her firm’s office to a trial judge, and one may be equally quizzical where that offer is accepted. How does counsel for the other (losing) party explain this to his client?
This is not to suggest that anything improper takes place. But it is to' suggest that it is an arrangement that the public at large may well view with a jaundiced eye.
Apparently, I am alone in my bewilderment. And, standing in isolation, I would hesitate to reverse on that basis alone.