Court Opinion

ID: 9455365
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:20:08.3995+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:34.340594
License: Public Domain

LAY, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
I concur in the court’s opinion. Upon review of the entire evidence one cannot reasonably state with “definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” United States v. U. S. Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 542, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948).
I dislike entering into a mired, well-worn path of semantic debate. However, the common law lives only by the words judges write, so significantly, the preciseness of judicial definitions often serves as the pivotal factor for future cases. The language that this court has traditionally utilized in defining the standard of “clearly erroneous,” as applied to a trial judge’s findings, is not only troublesome to me, but seemly patent error.
In December 1943, this court decided the often cited ease of Cleo Syrup Corp. v. Coca-Cola Co., 139 F.2d 416, 150 A.L.R. 1056 (8 Cir. 1943). Judge Sanborn stated these principles:
“This court, upon review, will not retry issues of fact or substitute its *1276judgment with respect to such issues for that of the trial court. * * * In a non-jury case, this Court may not set aside a finding of fact of a trial court unless there is no substantial evidence to sustain it, unless it is against the clear weight of the evidence, or unless it was induced by an erroneous view of the law.” 139 F.2d at 417-418.
This language was drawn from his earlier opinion Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Kepler, 116 F.2d 1, 5 (8 Cir. 1941). Judge Sanborn there pointed out the old distinction between equity rules and law rules as to review of the trial court’s findings of fact. He said:
“Prior to the effective date (September 16, 1938) of the Rules of Civil Procedure, the findings of fact of a trial court, in an action at law tried without a jury, were as conclusive, upon review, as a verdict of a jury, and could not be set aside by the reviewing court if there was any substantial evidence to support them. A different rule prevailed in equity cases. The findings of fact of the trial court in such cases were presumptively correct, and, unless clearly against the weight of the evidence or induced by an erroneous view of the law, would not be disturbed by a reviewing court.”
He then pointed out the effect of the then new Rule 52(a)
“ * * * was to establish a uniform standard for testing the validity of findings of fact in any case tried without a jury. The standard adopted was ■ that which had always prevailed in equity.
“This Court, with respect to jury-waived cases, is no longer merely a court of error which considers only questions of law. It now acts as a court of review in all non-jury cases in accordance with the practice which formerly prevailed in equity appeals.”
The opinion quotes from the Chairman of the Advisory Committee (Honorable William Mitchell) regarding the adoption of Rule 52(a). The Chairman pointed out that under 52(a), a trial judge’s findings in both types of actions (equity as well as law) “can be set aside if against the clear weight of evidence, even though there is some evidence that might support a verdict or findings in a law case under the old system.” 116 F. 2d at 5, n. 3.
However, in concluding his discussion, Judge Sanborn said: “The findings of fact of the court below to the extent that they are unsupported by substantial evidence * * * are not binding upon this Court.” 116 F.2d at 5.
The danger lurking behind this statement is, as this court has done many times in the past, in restating the converse of the above rule to the effect that “we have no right to set aside a finding of the trial court if there is any substantial evidence to sustain it. * * * ” This simply reinstates the rule supposedly discarded by the adoption of Rule 52(a). See United States v. U. S. Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. at 395, 68 S.Ct. 525.
Text writers have consistently been critical of the courts for equating “substantial evidence” with the “clearly erroneous” rule. An example of this is stated in 2B Barron-Holtzoff, Federal Practice & Procedure, § 1135 at p. 549 (Rev. Rules ed. 1961):
“There is occasionally a suggestion that a finding which is supported by substantial evidence cannot be clearly erroneous. This is not the law. If the findings of the trial court appear to be against the clear weight of the evidence, after giving full effect to the special qualification of the trial judge to estimate the credibility and value of oral testimony, the appellate court may set aside the findings, and will do so even where there is evidence which, if credible, would be substantial, if the effect of the testimony considered as a whole convinces the appellate court that the finding is so against the great preponderance of credible testimony that it does not reflect the truth and right of the case.”
*1277Professor Davis points out:
“The scope of review of findings of a judge without a jury, however, is different from the scope of review of administrative findings and of jury verdicts, for findings of a judge may be upset if they are ‘clearly erroneous.’ Because findings may be clearly erroneous without being unreasonable so as to be upset under the substantial-evidence rule, the scope of review of administrative findings is narrower than the scope of review of a judge’s findings.” Davis, Admin. Law § 29.02 at p. 121.
The Davis treatise also points up the overall legislative history of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C.A. § 551 et seq. (hereinafter APA). Its sponsors rejected the “clearly erroneous” test and adopted the “substantial evidence” rule in its place. Professor Davis, in quoting from a law review commentator, sets forth:
“ ‘Application of the “clearly erroneous” rule to administrative agencies was favored and opposed precisely because it would give administrative findings less finality than they enjoyed under the “substantial evidence” rule.’ ” § 29.02 at p. 123.
The history of the APA is similarly detailed by Mr. Justice Frankfurter in Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 340 U.S. 474, 71 S.Ct. 456, 95 L.Ed. 456 (1951).
Perhaps, as some have intimated, the distinction between review of findings of fact based upon “substantial evidence” and review based upon the “clearly erroneous” rule is too marginal to make a difference.1 Justice Frankfurter, however, did not assume as much when he earlier observed:
“The ultimate reliance for the fair operation of any standard is a judiciary of high competence and character and the constant play of an informed professional critique upon its work. * * * * * *
“But a standard leaving an unavoidable margin for individual judgment does not leave the judicial judgment at large even though the phrasing of the standard does not wholly fence it in. The legislative history of these Acts demonstrates a purpose to impose on courts a responsibility which has not always been recognized.” 340 U.S. at 489, 71 S.Ct. at 465.
It is submitted that courts of review would add more light to the standard of “clearly erroneous” by avoiding use of the term of “substantial evidence.”
One of the major areas of confusion arises in distinguishing between “substantial evidence” and “substantial evidence on the record as a whole.” For example, where substantial evidence on the record as a whole exists, an administrative board’s finding is conclusive on a reviewing court. Yet, it is clear that this standard is not applicable under the “clearly erroneous test.” 2
*1278The Fifth Circuit points up another area of confusion:
“The clearly erroneous concept * * * affords a greater latitude [of review] than would an appeal from a jury verdict. In the latter it is a question of substantial evidence. In the former, there is still the qualitative factor of the truth and right of the case — the impression that a fundamentally wrong result has been reached.” (Emphasis ours.) Oil Screw Noah’s Ark v. Bentley & Felton Corp., 322 F.2d 3, 5-6 (5 Cir. 1963).
See also United States v. U. S. Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. at 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 92 L. Ed. 746.
In the final analysis, the language from the Gypsum case gives us a definite guideline as to the meaning of “clearly erroneous,” and formulas attempting to rephrase it are more confusing than helpful.3 The ultimate test of any appellate standard of review is what finality and integrity be given to findings being reviewed. The rules emphasize that traditional weight be given to a trial court’s determination of credibility of the witnesses. Nevertheless, Rule 52(a) when viewed in light of its legislative history and by Supreme Court decisions, demonstrates that an appellate court may substitute its judgment for the trial court’s findings notwithstanding substantial evidence to support it, when “the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” The occasion to so hold seldom arises, but I deem it important not only here, but in all proceedings, to hold firm to Judge Frank’s observation: “It follows that evidence sufficient to support a jury verdict or an administrative finding may not suffice to support a trial judge’s finding.” Orvis v. Higgins, 180 F.2d 537, 540 (2 Cir. 1950).

. See NLRB v. Southland Mfg. Co., 201 F.2d 244, 250 (4 Cir. 1952) (per J. Soper).

. Cf. Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. v. Federal Power Comm’n, 169 F.2d 392, 398 (S Cir. 1948): “The findings of an administrative agency are not to be tested by Rule 52(a) of the Rules of Civil Procedure.” See also the statement in Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 340 U.S. 474, 488, 71 S.Ct. 456, 465, 95 L.Ed. 456 (1951):
“To be sure, the requirement for canvassing ‘the whole record’ in order to ascertain substantiality does not furnish a calculus of value by which a reviewing court can assess the evidence. Nor was it intended to negative the function of the Labor Board as one of those-agencies presumably equipped or informed by experience to deal with a specialized field of knowledge, whose findings within that field carry the authority of an expertness which courts do not possess and therefore must respect. Nor does it mean that even as to matters not requiring expertise a court may displace the Board’s choice between two fairly conflicting views, even though the court would justifiably have made a different choice had the matter been before it de novo. Congress has merely made it clear that a reviewing court is not barred from setting *1278aside a Board decision when it cannot conscientiously find that the evidence supporting that decision is substantial, when viewed in the light that the record in its entirety furnishes, including the body of evidence opposed to the Board’s view.”

. In Universal Camera Mr. Justice Frankfurter similarly spoke of the definitions as to the “substantial evidence” rule:
“Sinee the precise way in which courts interfere with agency findings cannot be imprisoned within any form of words, new formulas attempting to rephrase the old are not likely to be more helpful than the old. There are no talismanic words that can avoid the process of judgment.” 340 U.S. at 489, 71 S.Ct. at 465.