Court Opinion

ID: 9844841
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:10:08.473906+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:44.942474
License: Public Domain

Petition for Rehearing.
McQUADE, Justice.
In the petition for rehearing, the appellants request a judgment for return of $10,000 of the $37,000 paid as down payment by the appellants. If there is basis to retain two-thirds of the down payment as damages, appellants must thereby concede there is a substantial basis for allowing damages in any sum. The evidence taken by the trial court is the only basis which this court has to determine the equity of the appeal of the appellants for apportioning to them a part of the down payment.
Appellant, Clarence B. Love, corroborated the contention of respondents that sheep and sheep ranches had substantially decreased in value after 1952. This leaves no dispute in the record as to .that *185particular economic circumstance. The various witnesses placed values on the ranch of from $50,000 to $78,000. It was the duty of the trial court to resolve these differences, and in the absence of a plain abuse of discretion, the finding will not be reversed on appeal.
Obviously, the court below attempted to find a value which would be a true representation of the market value at the time of the breach of the contract by considering the testimony of all the witnesses, and determined the fair market value to be $62,500. If $10,000 were allowed to the appellants, it would give almost full value to the testimony of appellant Clarence B. Love, and would completely discredit the testimony of respondent W. D. Scogings and the expert witnesses who are real estate dealers and who testified at the request of the respondents.
The damages allowed by the trial court are actual damages, and not a forfeiture above the value of the property. We must of necessity return to the fundamental legal principle that the trial court will determine the facts, and its findings will not be disturbed on appeal where there is substantial, though conflicting, evidence to support those findings.
The petition for rehearing is denied.
KEETON, C. J., and SMITH, J., concur.
PORTER and TAYLOR, JJ., dissent.