Court Opinion

ID: 9772148
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:08:49.773421+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:42.357928
License: Public Domain

Darrell Hickman, Justice, dissenting. The appellants are entitled to a trial and a trial court decision. The trial judge acknowledged he could not decide the case because it was too complicated and further time spent would only delay the case anyway. He simply passed it on to us. We are an appellate court and have no authority to weigh evidence and enter findings of fact. We may only review findings of facts already determined. It is elementary that every litigant is entitled to a trial. The trial judge quite candidly conceded a master or “panel of experts” should have been used. He should have gone one step further. Conceding the trial was beyond him, he should have appointed a master and ordered a new trial or granted a new trial and asked for another judge to hear the case. We cannot allow a party to have no trial judgment. However disagreeable and difficult, a decision must be made; however wrong it may be, a litigant is entitled to a decision by a trial court. At least then one can use the reasoning and judgment to argue for correction. The appellants have no remedy in this case. A trial court that cannot render a decision has defaulted. A decision by an appellant court without the power to try the case amounts to no decision at all. I would remand this case for a trial.