Court Opinion

ID: 9553705
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:33:35.66575+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:32:06.562724
License: Public Domain

ZIMMERMAN, Justice
(concurring in the result):
I concur in the disposition of the case made by the majority. However, I depart from the majority in my appraisal of the level of scrutiny the trial court gave the findings of fact and conclusions of law .prepared by counsel for Tel-Tech.
It is certainly true that a trial judge need not make any emendations in proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law to demonstrate that he or she has not abdicated the decision-making function to the lawyer who prepared the document. However, here the court signed proposed findings that included a statement that “[n]o evidence was introduced at trial ... of a surety bond” when this was not the case, and a *1264ruling that exhibits previously admitted should be rejected, a ruling which was manifestly incorrect. Moreover, at the time the trial court asked the parties to submit their proposed findings, the court had not decided how the case was to come out; therefore, the parties had no guidance from the trial court as to how to craft their findings. It can be assumed that as a result, each party prepared findings that were favorable to it on all points. The foregoing facts give me pause and suggest that the trial court may have been less than assiduous in reviewing the proposed findings, perhaps simply signing those proposed by the party that prevailed on the basic issues.
Trial judges are certainly entitled to ask the assistance of counsel in preparing findings of fact and conclusions of law. There is some danger that in the press of business, they may come to rely too heavily on these proposals and inadvertently permit counsel to inject findings that may not be entirely in conformity with the judge’s views or that may deal with issues the judge has not even thought about.
The finding of facts “is an important part of the judicial function,” one that is designed to flesh out the rationale for the decision and one that “the judge cannot surrender ... to counsel.” 9 Wright & Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2578, at 705 (1971) [hereinafter Wright and Miller]. As the United Státes Supreme Court has noted, findings of fact prepared by the court are “drawn with the insight of a disinterested mind” and are “more helpful to the appellate court” than those prepared by counsel. United States v. El Paso Natural Gas Co., 376 U.S. 651, 656, 84 S.Ct. 1044,1047,12 L.Ed.2d 12 (1964). It is for this reason that the federal courts appear to have almost uniformly adopted the rule that while findings prepared by counsel are sufficient under the federal analogue to Utah Rule of Civil Procedure 52, appellate courts “will feel freer in close cases to disregard a finding or remand for further findings if the trial court did not prepare them him [or her] self.” 9 Wright & Miller, at 707; see Utah R.Civ.P. 52(a); see, e.g., Ramey Constr. Co. v. Apache Tribe of Mescalero Reservation, 616 F.2d 464 (10th Cir.1980); Kelson v. United States, 503 F.2d 1291 (10th Cir.1974).
I know that I apply a similar standard in reviewing findings prepared by counsel, and I suspect that other members of this Court do the same, although to my knowledge, we have never said so. In light of this fact and the rule stated above, trial courts would be well advised to be vigilant in guarding against the tendency to view findings as a detail to be dealt with as expeditiously as possible, rather than as a fundamental part of the decisional process, one that goes to the heart of its integrity. In the same vein, counsel preparing proposed findings and conclusions should be cautious lest in their zeal, they incude proposals that may undermine the integrity of the judgment they hope to obtain.