Court Opinion

ID: 7819175
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-07 17:47:41.228324+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:30:41.480178
License: Public Domain

George Rose Smith, Justice, dissenting. Basically, I disagree with the majority’s assertion, in the next to the last paragraph of the opinion, that “the testimony of all the witnesses leaves the evidence as to the ownership so evenly balanced that it cannot be said that a preponderance lies either way.” That assertion is the cornerstone of the majority’s decision to remand the case to the chancellor for a decision about where the weight of the evidence lies. Quite obviously the chancellor’s determination will not be open to review by this court. That is so because all the evidence is now before us. If a clear preponderance of the proof favors one side or the other, nothing is to be gained by sending the case back to the chancery court, because we can and should end the litigation right now by announcing a decision in accordance with the weight of the evidence. Hence the majority’s election to remand the case to the trial court necessarily and logically depends upon the finding that the testimony is so evenly balanced that the preponderance must be determined by the chancellor (who had the slight advantage of hearing the additional witnesses who testified at the second trial). In my opinion the evidence now preponderates decidedly in favor of appellant. We might have made that determination upon the first appeal except for the deficiencies of proof that were discussed in the per curiam opinion on rehearing. At the end of that opinion we listed five specific issues which might well have been clarified by the presentation of evidence not heard at the original trial. Our doubts about the deficiencies in the proof have now been set at rest. Despite the efforts of able counsel to find the missing proof, it is now apparent that hardly any further clarification of the issues' is possible. The evidence is simply not available. The case must therefore be finally decided, either here or in the trial court, upon the present record. I think it should be decided here, for I believe that the clear weight of the competent evidence supports the appellant’s position. There is no doubt that a partnership existed between the two brothers. There is no doubt that funds derived from the partnership were used to purchase lands that were deeded to George Wilson only. Hence, unless a contrary intention appears, the lands became partnership property. Ark. Stat. Ann. § 65-108 (Repl. 1966). In addition to the statutory presumption there is the testimony of witness after witness that George Wilson repeatedly stated that there was a partnership and that the lands belonged to him and to his brother. Such declarations were unquestionably competent evidence, as statements against interest. On the other hand, there is hardly any competent proof in favor of the appellees. The deeds, of course, were made to George alone, but when the partnership issue is taken into account the form of the conveyances becomes immaterial. Proof that the purchases were made with funds derived from the partnership established a prima facie case for the appellant, shifting to the appellees the burden of going forward with the evidence. That burden was not met. The chancellor, I submit, misinterpreted the issues when he based his decision upon this reasoning in his opinion: “There is nothing in the retrial that indicates that George Wilson could or could not have bought the land from funds he withdrew as his own from the partnership source. The whole of the problem is not that the land was bought with funds derived from the partnership, for this is true. It is rather whose money purchased the lands. If partnership funds were used to purchase the lands as a partnership asset, then it is partnership lands, but if George Wilson purchased the lands for himself from funds he withdrew for himself from the partnership then the lands were George Wilson’s.” The defect in the chancellor’s reasoning lies in the concession that there is nothing in the proof to show whether George bought the lands with partnership funds or with his own funds derived from the partnership. The gap in the proof is fatal to the appellees’ position, for they had the burden of overcoming the appellant’s prima facie case. There remains, as far as I can see, no other proof to support the appellees except George’s repeated statements, made to his accountant, to Mrs. Lillian Young, and to others, that he was the owner of the land. Those statements, however, were inadmissible, being self-serving declarations. Beichslich v. Beichslich, 177 Ark. 47, 5 S.W. 2d 739 (1928); Waldroop v. Ruddell, 96 Ark. 171, 131 S.W. 670 (1910). When the deeds and the self-serving declarations are laid aside, I find no proof to offset the strong case made by the appellant. It is regrettable that the majority, in delegating to the chancellor the responsibility for deciding the case, have not seen fit to set forth the competent evidence which is thought to be so strong as to leave the preponderance in doubt. That course casts upon me the burden of proving the negative, which is not ordinarily a simple task. Here, however, the majority do recognize that the facts are fully discussed in the three opinions delivered upon the first appeal. I have reread those opinions carefully, and if they recite any competent evidence tending to support the appellees’ position as the record now stands, I have not found it. Brown and Fogleman, JJ., join in this dissent.