Court Opinion

ID: 9650156
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 15:26:00.167235+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:44:06.295898
License: Public Domain

POMEROY, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I would affirm the chancellor’s findings as approved by the lower court en banc.
The chancellor, after having seen all of the evidence and after having heard all of the witnesses, held that the evidence failed to establish either of the requisite elements of a valid inter vivos gift of stock in WIPCO, Inc. to appellant by *239her husband, Joseph Ashley, or by Ashley Machine & Tool Co., a company totally owned by Joseph. The chancellor found that there was no delivery because appellant, who was secretary-treasurer of WIPCO, Inc., allowed the contested stock certificate to remain unsigned in the corporate files; that there was no showing of divestiture of control by the husband because it was not shown at trial who controlled the stock during the period from January 6, 1964, the date of purported issuance, to March 4, 1968, the date when the corporate records began to reflect sole ownership in Ashley; and that there was “no proof whatsoever” that it was Joseph Ashley’s intention to make a gift of stock to appellant. (Appellant’s brief, pp. 76-79).
We have said repeatedly that the findings of fact of a chancellor, affirmed by the court en banc, ordinarily “have the effect of a jury verdict and will not be reversed unless a review of the record reveals that they are unsupported by the evidence or predicated upon erroneous inferences and deductions or errors of law.” Payne v. Kassab, 468 Pa. 226, 234, 361 A.2d 263, 267 (1976). In that decision we went on to observe:
“The chancellor has seen and heard the witnesses; if a reading of the record reasonably can be said to yield the conclusions which he has drawn, we may not substitute our judgment for his. Harrisburg School District v. Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, 453 Pa. 495, 309 A.2d 353 (1973); Yuhas v. Schmidt, 434 Pa. 447, 258 A.2d 616 (1969). See 9 Standard Pennsylvania Practice, Ch. 40, §§ 113, 115-117 (1962).” 468 Pa. at 234, 361 A.2d at 267.
My reading of the record in the case at bar leaves no doubt in my mind that the chancellor’s findings were reasonably grounded in the evidence. The record is replete with inconsistencies and conflicts including, in the chancellor’s words, the “morass of Joseph’s oral statements, written statements, and badly kept corporate records.” I believe that the chancellor could best resolve these matters.
*240Disregarding our salutary scope of review, the majority substitutes its judgment on disputed issues of fact for that of the lower court. This is jurisprudentially unsound, and I dissent.