Court Opinion

ID: 9542149
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:31:32.710727+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:06:50.626183
License: Public Domain

*336LENT, J.,
specially concurring.
I concur in the result and with the basic approach to that result. I must express my reservations, however, concerning the use of the term "reasonable certainty” to describe the quantum of persuasion necessary to establish a real property description by extrinsic evidence so as to avoid the impact of the Statute of Frauds.
The term is merely a label which has no precise meaning; therefore, the trier of fact has a task impossible to perform upon a logical basis. If the court requires that the evidence to establish the property description be more than that necessary to establish the affirmative of the issue by a preponderance of the evidence, the court should candidly say so. If that is what is meant by use of the term, I would then dissent for reasons to which I have alluded earlier. See Hardwick v. Dravo Equipment Company, 279 Or 619, 630, 569 P2d 588 (1977) (Lent, J., specially concurring). Compare, Jensen v. Miller, 280 Or 225, 229, 570 P2d 375, 377 (1977), footnote 1.
That this court has used the term in such ways as to illustrate its inherent imprecision appears from a comparison of its use in Dravo with its use in Cont. Plants v. Measured Mkt., 274 Or 621, 624, 547 P2d 1368 (1976). In Dravo the term was used to describe some measure greater than mere probability, while in Cont. Plants the court said that it meant no more than probability. It is true that both cases were concerned with the sufficiency of evidence to establish damages; however, I think that is a difference without distinction. The fact remains that the term is imprecise and tends to confuse.