Court Opinion

ID: 9695658
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:26:45.09198+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:15.572252
License: Public Domain

Grimes, J.,
dissenting: My difference with the court in this case stems from my belief that the court has been applying the wrong test under RSA 31:78. It is true that there is not now a trial de novo in the superior court (Gelinas v. Portsmouth, 97 N.H. 248, 85 A.2d 896 (1952)) and that St. Onge v. Concord, 95 N.H. 306, 63 A.2d 221 (1949) no longer may be relied upon. However, the present statute gives the findings of the board only a prima facie presumption of reasonableness; a presumption which the statute itself says may be overcome if “the court is persuaded by a balance of probabilities, on the evidence before it, that said order or decision is unjust or unreasonable.” See HIK Corporation v. Manchester, 103 N.H. 378, 381, 172 A.2d 368, 369 (1961).
I fail to see how this simple test can be interpreted as a requirement that before the burden can be met, it must be “rule[d] as a matter of law that the evidence compelled a contrary finding by the board.” The statement was made in Sweeney v. Dover, 108 N.H. 307, 310, 234 A.2d 521, 523 (1967), without any supporting authority. Although I did not write a dissent in that case, the opinion itself shows that the court was divided. The same harsh rule was carried over into Vannah v. Bedford, 111 N.H. 105, 276 A.2d 253 (1971) and in Simoneau v. Nashua, 112 N.H. 18, 287 A.2d 620 (1972). Being bound by prior cases, I stated in Hanson v. Manning, 115 N.H. 367, 341 A.2d 764 (1975), that an appellant has a heavy burden under the cases. This present case has convinced me that it. is an almost impossible burden and that it should no longer stand. The requirement of Sweeney quoted above from the majority opinion confines the court to errors of law whereas the statute expressly permits the burden to be overcome as a matter of fact. *774To me it is clear that the statute permits the superior court to consider additional evidence and then to decide whether it is persuaded by the balance of probabilities that as a matter of fact the decision is either unjust or unreasonable. This is not a substitution of judgment as in a trial de novo.
Moreover the test used by the court ignores the fact that the statute authorizes the setting aside of decisions of the board not only when they are unreasonable but also if they are “unjust.” This is similar to the old statute which authorized the court to do what “justice may require.” To the extent that the cases relied on by the court require more than a finding by a mere balance of probability that the decision was unjust or unreasonable, I would overrule them.
The trial court in this case put great stress on the importance of what was seen on the view. Gelinas v. Portsmouth, 97 N.H. 248, 85 A.2d 896 (1952); Conery v. Nashua, 103 N.H. 16, 164 A.2d 247 (1960). The finding that the units would be useless as a single family residence is based on the essential character of the separate structures without any hall or passage between the separate units. This finding is not dependent upon the alterations which the court says cannot be considered.
For over twenty years the property has been put to the same use as plaintiffs have been using it. From 1952 until plaintiffs purchased them in 1968 the seven units which were separately metered for electricity were occupied by five different families and plaintiffs have merely continued the same character of use.
The trial court found that the property sits in the middle of the most “non-single family residence area” of the district and that its use would not alter the essential character of the area or in any way diminish the value of the surrounding properties. The evidence overwhelmingly supports these findings. There is compelling evidence that there are “special conditions” which set this property apart from all other property in the district. See Sweeney v. Dover, 108 N.H. 307, 234 A.2d 521 (1967).
After having heard additional evidence and taken a view the importance of which was repeatedly stressed, the court in this case specifically found on the evidence as a whole that the plaintiffs had met their burden of proof under RSA 31:78 and that the court was “persuaded by the balance of probabilities that the order or decision is ‘both’ unjust and unreasonable.” Because I consider that there was ample support for this finding, I would uphold the trial court.