Court Opinion

ID: 9528676
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:43:01.824747+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:12.440618
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(specially concurring).
WARRANTIES
I concur realizing this Court has affirmed the trial court’s application of North Dakota law. It is a given fact that North Dakota decisions and statutes apply.
As to a decision from this Court, in the future, on the law of our state, as governed by South Dakota statutes and previous decisions in this Court, I reserve my judgment for a day when the precise questions arise.
In my opinion, not signing the reverse side of the purchase order can be interpreted that the buyer did not agree to the provisions on the reverse side. The reverse side contained an exclusion of warranties provision.
With respect to what was said by whom concerning the oral representations, the trial court was faced with a big credibility scenario, and it resolved the conflicts of evidence in favor of the buyer. We are not at liberty to change the findings where the trial court has resolved conflicts in the evidence. Mulder v. Tague, 85 S.D. 544, 186 N.W.2d 884 (1971). This Court should not superimpose its judgment on the credibility of the witnesses, as we have so often expressed throughout this Court’s history. In approving the trial court’s findings, it is important to note that the trial court sifted through voluminous testimony in determining, as a matter of mixed fact and law, that the exclusion of express warranties was never expressly bargained for.
In essence, my point with respect to the warranties, is that we must realize that we have before us, a South Dakota trial judge applying North Dakota law, based upon the facts he finds. South Dakota, in the future, should make its own law. This is not to say that we should disregard, out of hand, the legal work product of our Brothers in North Dakota.
PREJUDGMENT INTEREST
South Dakota’s prejudgment interest law has developed uncertainty with the advent of new members serving on this Court. I *156have served with five different Courts from the standpoint of a different composition of the Court. As a result of differing opinions on how to apply this state’s statute, great conflict, consternation, and trouble has flowed with the trial bench and bar in trying to apply the prejudgment interest statute to different factual scenarios. However, it is to be noted, again, that the trial judge on the prejudgment interest issue, applied all North Dakota decisions. In essence, North Dakota’s law is based upon the theory that prejudgment interest must be susceptible of being made certain by mathematical calculation from known factors. We must apply that rule to the facts at hand. According to the record, I glean as follows: (1) A May 4, 1990 judgment exists; it does not specify the amount of interest; it does specify $4,300.00 principal; and (2) A May 24, 1990 judgment exists; it specifies principal of $4,300.00; but it adds $1,935.00 interest from: June 1, 1987 to June 1, 1990. Therefore, it nicely cleaves it for three years, from June 1, 1987 to June 1, 1990. It expresses that interest will be $5.38 per day. In my opinion, post judgment interest would follow South Dakota law because this is a South Dakota judgment. Patzer, et al., concede that if Husky prevails, that Husky is entitled to post judgment interest. The amount of acreage business lost, according to one witness, because of non-spraying at Léola, was 2,800 to 3,000 acres. Several spraying days were lost due to the fact that only one spray plane was in operation; the other plane was down, namely the plane in question. The down plane was delivered on May 27, 1987. The trial judge chose the date on June 1, 1987 as the time to begin calculating interest. It appears the trial judge took into consideration the number of acres, a spraying fee of $3.25 per acre, deducted the pilot’s fee of $.60 per acre, calculated the maintenance, all from the trial transcript. Although there was no mathematical precision, there does appear to be the mathematical calculation, by the trial court, as to a day certain and factors to apply to the non-usage of the airplane in question. There appears to be a fair, non-erroneous finding by the trial court on prejudgment interest. It was a studied effort by the trial court based upon testimony in the record. It was far from a slapdash judgment. Therefore, I would sustain the prejudgment interest based upon the sworn testimony and the reasonable exactness of the prejudgment award. Super Hooper, Inc. v. Dietrich & Sons, Inc., 347 N.W.2d 152 (N.D.1984).
I concur on the dissertation regarding the sufficiency of the evidence, liability of Chase, and implied warranty issues.