Court Opinion

ID: 9701365
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:17:04.671974+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:22.953073
License: Public Domain

PEDERSON, Justice
(dissenting).
Findings of fact are not clearly erroneous merely because this court says so. Justice Paulson has pointed out what the rules are in the opinion he authored for this court in Haberstroh v. Haberstroh, 258 N.W.2d 669 (N.D.1977). (1) Findings on property division will not be disturbed unless they are induced by an erroneous view of the law; (2) when there is some evidence supporting the findings but we are nevertheless left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been made, we may set trial court findings aside.
There is no erroneous view of the law pointed out and I have no firm conviction that a mistake was made in this case. I might have viewed the facts differently if I had been the trier of facts but that doesn’t permit me to substitute my judgment, as an appellate judge, for that of the trial judge. See Larson v. Larson, 234 N.W.2d 861 (N.D.1975). When it does not appear that we can do any better, we should leave well enough alone. See my dissent in Haugeberg v. Haugeberg, 258 N.W.2d 657 (N.D.1977).