Court Opinion

ID: 9654567
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:26:15.504868+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:10.734603
License: Public Domain

JAMES M. SMART, JR., Judge,
concurring.
I write only to comment on the matter of whether the conclusion that Vernon King owned the business was against the weight of the evidence. The documentary evidence of Husband’s ownership was practically overwhelming. The trial court could not disregard this evidence. This means that the trial court had to have some way of understanding the documentary evidence that was consistent with Vernon’s ownership. The majority does not touch on this necessity for a theory of the evidence, and instead approaches the evidence as though this case is solely about credibility. Although I cannot say the trial court should be reversed on this issue, I think some comment must be made as to the “weight of the evidence” in this case.
In 1991, Vernon chose to set up all the documentation of the business in such a way as to place formal ownership of the business in Cordell (“Husband”). All the documentary evidence indicates that ownership of the business had been transferred from Vernon to Husband. The accountant stated that Husband signed a note for $45,000 to his father, presumably to acquire the business. The accountant seemed confused, however, saying that he does not know who owns the business. Vernon says he owns the business, and that the reason all the documents make it appear that Husband owns it is because Vernon received “wrong advice” about his taxes.
The only way I can make sense of this is to believe that the “wrong advice” Vernon received was never specifically revealed at trial, but that the trial court nevertheless perceived it. Perhaps the specter of having to pay federal estate taxes loomed over this business as Vernon reached his senior years. Rather than incorporate the business and gradually transfer shares by gift to Husband, Vernon decided to make it appear that Husband bought the business in 1991 for $45,000. On Vernon’s death there would be no federal estate tax because all of the documentation would make clear that Vernon was not the owner at the time of his death.
*41Fortunately for Husband, the trial judge believed that, as between Vernon and Husband (and indirectly Wife), Vernon did in fact still own the business. No doubt the court believed that if there were a falling out between Vernon and Husband, and if Vernon were to insist on a reversal of all the documentation, Husband would cooperate because the reality was that Vernon “runs the show.” The customers, the vendors, the employees, and the bankers all saw it as Vernon’s business. Husband knew he would not get very far in attempting to wrest the business away from Vernon without Vernon’s blessing.
Whether the precipitating factor here was estate taxes, as I suspect, or something else, the reality is that the trial judge understood that Vernon was trying to have the best of both worlds. I do not see how we can treat this as strictly an issue of credibility when wife points out that the documentation, with which she had nothing to do, shows overwhelmingly that Husband owned the business in 1994. Certainly, had the trial court found that that Husband owned the business, and had Husband appealed, there would be no question that we would affirm. It is harder to affirm where the trial court has found that Husband did not own the business. Although I am willing to go along with my colleagues and the trial court in this instance, because I do not think we should declare as a matter of law that the judgment was against the weight of the evidence, I believe the judgment would have been against the weight of the evidence if it were not evident that the trial court understood the nature of the “wrong advice” about taxes.
EDWIN H. SMITH, J., concurs.