Court Opinion

ID: 9457980
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:40:01.846982+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:36.119379
License: Public Domain

ALDISERT, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
To make the award for the plaintiff in the non-jury proceeding, the trial court had to find as a fact that there was a mutual mistake: that the parties had understood that $6,000 was the “declared value” of the shipment. This critical finding controls the outcome. “In reviewing the decision of the District Court, our responsibility is not to substitute findings we could have made had we been the fact-finding tribunal; our sole function is to review the record to determine whether the findings of the District Court were clearly erroneous, i. e., whether we are ‘left with a firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.’ ” Speyer, Inc. v. Humble Oil & Refining Co., 403 F.2d 766, 770 (3d Cir. 1968). F.R.Civ.P. 52. Applying this standard to the record, I am convinced that “a mistake has been committed” in the court’s finding of mutual mistake. I would therefore vacate the judgment and remand.