McAvoy v. Rush

Decided January 7, 1969

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine · decided 1969-01-07

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“52(a) Effect. “In all actions tried upon the facts the court shall, upon request of a party made as a motion within 5 days after notice of the decision, or may upon its own motion, find the facts specially and state separately its conclusions of law thereon and direct the entry of the appropriate judgment. Requests for findings are not necessary for purposes of review. Findings of fact shall not be set aside unless clearly erroneous, and due regard shall be given to .the opportunity of the court to judge the credibility of the witnesses.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including Blue Spruce Company v. Parent

Relies on Sowles v. Beaumier

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1969-01-07

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently August 1983

6 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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PER CURIAM.

¶1This is an appeal from the decision of a single Justice to whom the case was submitted without either jury or complete record of the evidence.

¶2Upon cases so submitted “(f)indings of fact shall not be set aside unless clearly erroneous,” Rule 52 M.R.C.P., which but declares long standing law, and the burden is upon appellant to demonstrate clear error. Sowles v. Beaumier, Me., 227 A.2d 473 [4], 475.

¶3Without a record of the testimony we have nothing by which to measure the findings of fact upon which decision rests.

¶4Appeal dismissed.