Perreault v. Parker: Findings Tainted By Error

An appellate court does not disturb a trial court's findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous, and, therefore, usually confines its review to an assessment of a trial court's legal conclusions based on those findings of fact. The method used by a trial court in making factual findings, however, involves the application of legal principles. If a trial court fails properly to apply these legal principles in arriving at its findings of fact, these findings may be tainted by the error. This is so, for instance, when a trial court's findings of fact have been "manifestly influenced or controlled" by the trial court's failure to apply correctly the burden of proof. Findings that have been tainted by such legal error do not merit the deference accorded by the clearly erroneous standard of review. In Perreault v. Parker, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, acknowledged the trial court's legal error concerning the allocation of the burden of proof on the central issue in the case. The Law Court nevertheless failed to consider the effect of this legal error on the trial court's findings of fact. The court held merely that those findings were not clearly erroneous. In doing so, the Law Court improperly applied the clearly erroneous standard of review.