Court Opinion

ID: 9580565
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:06:09.765099+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:21.918565
License: Public Domain

*542
Cochran, J.,

dissenting.

I disagree. After giving the plaintiffs the benefit of all reasonable inferences to which they are entitled, as parties fortified by a jury verdict approved by the trial court, I nevertheless find their evidence unbelievable. The trial judge stated that he was “not personally persuaded by Mrs. Lucas’ testimony” but that he could not hold her testimony to be “completely incredible”. I have no such difficulty. In the face of the record before us, in which the documentary evidence of the Walker Agency is clear, unequivocal, and conclusive, and the testimony - of Mrs. Lucas, her teen-age daughter and the daughter’s teen-age boyfriend is completely incredible, it is apparent that the jury returned a verdict based on sympathy and compassion.
I deem it to be our duty to correct such an error, and I would reverse the judgment of the trial court and enter final judgment for the appellants.

Harrison and Poff, J.J., join in this dissent.