Court Opinion

ID: 9765110
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:51:01.210871+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:05.240340
License: Public Domain

*798WEBBER, Justice
(dissenting).
I am not satisfied that any error was committed below. The plaintiff has alleged facts in her complaint which if satisfactorily proven would entitle the estate which she represents to recover a money judgment from the defendant. The complaint asserts and rests upon the theory of conversion. The plaintiff therefore assumed the burden of proof upon that issue. Harvey v. Anacone (1936) 134 Me. 245, 249, 184 A. 889. This burden of proof or persuasion never shifts although the burden of going forward with evidence may shift. Hinds v. John Hancock Mutual Life Ins. Co. (1959) 155 Me. 349, 155 A.2d 721, 85 A.L.R. 2d 703. He who assumes the burden of persuasion is subject at all times to the risk of non-persuasion and if he fails to persuade, he loses his case. Foss v. McRae (1909) 105 Me. 140, 143, 73 A. 827; Cox v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. (1942) 139 Me. 167, 170, 28 A.2d 143. Defendant by affirmative defense assumed the burden of proving that the money claimed was the result of the earnings of Helen M. Stone within the meaning and protection of 19 M.R.S.A. Sec. 163. That statute provides: “A married woman may receive the wages of her personal labor not performed for her own family, * * * and hold them in her own right against her husband or any other person.” After carefully reviewing the evidence, the Justice below concluded that “Mrs. Stone’s earnings came from employment in the shoe industry and fall within the protection of the statute.” He further concluded that Mr. Stone’s earnings were “of questionable sufficiency to support a single person.” Upon the whole evidence the Justice found, “Upon consideration, it is held that the existence of a remainder from the Estate of Benjamin F. Stone for the benefit of the plaintiff has not been established.” In short, he determined that the plaintiff failed to prove facts essential to recovery by the greater weight of the evidence. On this record it cannot be said that his assessment of the facts is clearly erroneous.
The plaintiff did not by her complaint seek to impose a trust or obtain a court ordered accounting. Under appropriate circumstances such an accounting will be ordered by the Court upon equitable principles. Caverly v. Small (1920) 119 Me. 291, 111 A. 300. We need not here determine the nature and quantum of proof which would have been required of plaintiff, had she elected to seek such a remedy. But see Viele v. Curtis (1917) 116 Me. 328, 330, 101 A. 966. It suffices to say that she has failed to produce satisfactory and persuasive evidence of conversion. I would deny the appeal.
DUFRESNE, J., joins in this opinion.