Court Opinion

ID: 9651146
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 16:08:59.614644+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:30.620073
License: Public Domain

HUXMAN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I think the decision of the trial court should be reversed. It is of course axiomatic that we should not substitute our judgment for that of the trial court where there is a conflict in the evidence, but in my view there is no conflict in the evidence in this case. It is all one way. There is no dispute but that appellant’s legal domicile for years had been in Arkansas. The only peg upon which this decision can be hung is that appellant purchased a house in Sapulpa after her husband had enlisted in the army and thereby had evidenced an intent to make Sapulpa her future permanent home. In my view this peg is too weak to support the weight of this decision. She had an aunt living in Sapulpa; her husband had enlisted in the army. They had moved to Sapulpa a few months before he actually entered the army and had rented a house, but later bought this house because it was cheaper to buy than to rent.
Purchase of a house in a state other than that of one’s legal domicile in itself raises no legal presumption of change of domicile. Yet that is what we have here. Every other inference, circumstance or evidentiary fact is consistent with her statement that Arkansas was her legal domicile, and inconsistent with the court’s finding. Of course the trial court is best able to observe the demeanor and conduct of the witness on the stand, but there is no inkling of a suspicion in the entire record that the trial court could observe anything that is not apparent to us from the record. It is simply a question whether the purchase of this house in Sapulpa while the husband was in the army is sufficient in itself and standing alone to overcome all the uncontroverted facts which show the existence of a legal domicile in Arkansas. In my view it is not.
For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.