Court Opinion

ID: 9750242
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 14:39:47.635453+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:05.014751
License: Public Domain

Johnston, C. J.,
dissenting: The outstanding fact in this case is the use of the phrase “and to the survivors of them” in a clause of the deed that states the payment of the consideration by Jules Letourneau and Georgiana Turgeon. The majority opinion suggests no meaning whatever for these words that a Trial Court might find but brushes them aside. The two Trial Judges who presided at the respective hearings decided that they disclosed an intention of joint tenancy.
The requirement that for reformation evidence must be “clear and convincing” is not a rule of construction that overrides the often announced principle that the intention of the parties should prevail. It is merely an instruction to guide the trier of fact, similar to that of the burden of proof. It points out that mistake, fraud and other grounds for reformation are unusual and that responsible persons do not charge them lightly. When a Trial Court has found mistake or fraud, such finding cannot be set aside unless there was no evidence to sustain the finding or it was against the weight of the evidence or the trial was unfair for some other reason. Here there was evidence from which an intention of joint tenancy could be inferred, and it cannot be said that the Trial *65Judge who found such an intention acted without intelligence. No New Hampshire case has been cited in which a finding was set aside on the ground that the evidence was not “clear and convincing.”
The question of whether the evidence was “clear and convincing” is not one of law for this court but one of fact for the trial court. All findings necessary to sustain the general finding are implied. Caldwell v. Yeatman, 91 N. H. 150. “On the contrary all the presumptions are in favor of the judgment of the trial court. 3 Am. Jur., Title: Appeal and Error, s. 923. In this case therefore, we must assume that the Court was satisfied that there was a plain mistake clearly made out by satisfactory proof.” Chabot v. Shiner, 95 N. H. 252, 255.
The findings of the Trial Court were warranted by the evidence and its ruling was correct.