Court Opinion

ID: 9861752
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 00:27:49.686889+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:28:55.764548
License: Public Domain

LEVINE, Justice,
concurring specially.
We first mentioned Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986), in a footnote in PCA of Fargo v. Foss, 391 N.W.2d 622, 624-25 n. 3 (N.D.1986). It remained a lurking imminence until we took the bull by the horns, so to speak, and applied it in State Bank of Kenmare v. Lindberg, 471 N.W.2d 470 (N.D.1991). Now we must further reckon with its implications and with its alteration of the law.
In holding that the substantive standard of proof must be taken into account in deciding a summary judgment motion, the United States Supreme Court assured us that it was not denigrating the role of the jury or authorizing trial by affidavit. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 255, 106 S.Ct. at 2513-14. To the contrary, “[credibility determinations, the weighing of the evidence, and the drawing of legitimate inferences from the facts are jury functions, not those of a judge....” The Court instructed us that “[t]he evidence of the nonmovant is to be believed, and all justifiable inferences are to be drawn in his favor.” Id.
The Court’s disclaimers remind me of parents’ frequent admonitions to their offspring to do as they say, not as they do. Despite all of the Court’s protestations, it is difficult for me to understand how, when we apply a clear-and-convincing standard to a ruling on motion for summary judgment, we can avoid considering inferences to be drawn or acting as a jury in assessing weight and credibility of, at least, a posi*748tion, if not specific evidence, though I suspect we indulge in the latter endeavor as well.
Anderson effected a “decided change” in summary judgment practice. See Street v. J.C. Bradford & Co., 886 F.2d 1472 (6th Cir.1989). It made the granting of summary judgment much more available and overcame the practice of denying summary judgment if there was even a suggestion of an issue of fact. Id. By holding that the test for deciding a motion for summary judgment is the same as that for a directed verdict motion, the Court must be condoning some review of the weight of the evidence. See Childress, A New Era For Summary Judgments: Recent Shifts At The Supreme Court, 116 F.R.D. 183 (1987).
So, under Anderson, the standard for deciding summary judgment is whether the evidence presents sufficient disagreement to require submission to a jury or whether it is so one-sided that one party must prevail as a matter of law. Further, when the governing standard of proof is clear and convincing, the evidence must be either qualitatively or quantitatively superior to that offered in a case governed by the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard. Applying the Anderson principles, I agree that the evidence presented by the proponents of the will, bolstered by the presumptions of due execution and testamentary capacity, is so one-sided that the proponents must prevail as a matter of law. The mere existence of a “scintilla” of evidence in support of the contestant’s position is insufficient to defeat summary judgment. Anderson, ill U.S. at 251, 106 S.Ct. at 2511-12. There must be evidence on which a jury could reasonably find for the non-movant. Id. I agree that in this record there is not.
I, therefore, concur.