DeClaire v. Yohanan

• Decision Date: 07 June 1984
• Docket Number: No. 63012,63012
• Citation: 453 So.2d 375
• Parties: George F. DeCLAIRE, Petitioner, v. Donna DeClaire YOHANAN, Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 375

453 So.2d 375

George F. DeCLAIRE, Petitioner, v. Donna DeClaire YOHANAN, Respondent.

No. 63012.

Supreme Court of Florida.

June 7, 1984.

Montgomery, Lytal, Reiter, Denney & Searcy, and Edna L. Caruso, West Palm Beach, for petitioner.

James M. Tuthill of Christiansen, Jacknin & Tuthill, West Palm Beach, for respondent.

OVERTON, Justice.

This is a petition to review a decision of the Fourth District Court of Appeal reported as Yohanan v. DeClaire, 421 So.2d 551 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982). The district court held that the petitioner-husband's filing of a false financial affidavit in the parties' dissolution action constituted "fraud on the court" and was grounds for setting aside a property settlement agreement approved in the final judgment of dissolution entered three years prior to the commencement of this action. We find direct conflict with Truitt v. Truitt, 383 So.2d 276 (Fla. 5th DCA 1980); Erhardt v. Erhardt, 362 So.2d 70 (Fla. 2d DCA 1978), review denied, 368 So.2d 1366 (Fla.1979); August v. August, 350 So.2d 794 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977); and Kimbrough v. McCranie, 325 So.2d 70 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976). We have jurisdiction, article V, section 3(b)(3), Florida Constitution. We find that the conduct in this case did not constitute fraud on the court, as such fraud has been defined and applied, and we quash the decision of the district court.

In the instant case, the petitioner-husband and the respondent-wife dissolved their marriage on October 27, 1977. The final judgment of dissolution incorporated a property settlement agreement entered into between the parties. The record reflects that this was a contested dissolution with substantial discovery and multiple proceedings before and after the entry of final judgment. Three years after the entry of the final judgment, the respondent-wife petitioned for an increase in child support. She later amended her petition, seeking to have the final judgment of dissolution set aside and to have the property settlement agreement declared void on the ground that the petitioner had fraudulently misrepresented his net worth in a financial affidavit on which the respondent allegedly relied in entering into the property settlement agreement.

Following an evidentiary hearing, the trial court (1) granted an increase in child support; (2) found that the financial affidavit executed by the petitioner was false in that it did not accurately reflect the petitioner's assets and liabilities or petitioner's net worth at the time of the dissolution; and (3) denied respondent's request that the property settlement agreement be declared void because the respondent knew or should have known of her former husband's true net worth as she had previously co-signed financial statements presented to a bank for the purpose of obtaining a loan and because information concerning the petitioner's true net worth could have been and should have been brought to the trial court's attention.

The district court reversed the trial court's refusal to set aside the property settlement agreement, finding that petitioner's conduct was fraud on the court. The district court recognized that the application of the concept of fraud on the court is restricted because public policy favors the termination of litigation, but held that "the public policy favoring the termination of litigation must yield in the present case to the public policy favoring the filing of accurate financial affidavits in dissolution actions." 421 So.2d at 553. According to the district court, the petitioner's "fraudulent affidavit constituted fraud upon the court because a trial court cannot properly determine what to award the parties or whether to approve a property settlement agreement without a true understanding of the parties' financial condition." Id. We disagree.

At the outset we must distinguish between extrinsic fraud and intrinsic fraud because only extrinsic fraud may constitute fraud on the court. Extrinsic fraud involves conduct which is collateral to the issues tried in a case. The definition of extrinsic fraud was specifically articulated in United States v. Throckmorton, 98 U.S. 61, 65-66, 25 L.Ed. 93 (1878), in which the United States Supreme Court said:

Where the unsuccessful party has been prevented from exhibiting fully his case, by fraud or deception practiced on him by his opponent, as by keeping him away from court, a false promise of a compromise; or where the defendant never had knowledge of the suit, being kept in ignorance by the acts of the plaintiff; or where an attorney fraudulently or without authority assumes to represent a party and connives at his defeat; or where the attorney regularly employed corruptly sells out his client's interest to the other side--these, and similar cases which show that there has never been a real contest in the trial or hearing of the case, are reasons for which a new suit may be sustained to set aside and annul the former judgment or decree, and open the case for a new and a fair hearing. (Citations omitted.)

Consistent with the general rule, this Court has defined extrinsic fraud as the

prevention of an unsuccessful party [from] presenting his case, by fraud or deception practiced by his adversary; keeping the opponent away from court; falsely promising a compromise; ignorance of the adversary about the existence of the suit or the acts of the plaintiff; fraudulent representation of a party without his consent and connivance in his defeat; and so on.

Fair v. Tampa Electric Co., 158 Fla. 15, 18, 27 So.2d 514, 515 (1946). See Black's Law Dictionary 595 (rev. 5th ed. 1979). In other words, extrinsic fraud occurs where a defendant has somehow been prevented from participating in a cause.

Intrinsic fraud, on the other hand, applies to fraudulent conduct that arises within a proceeding and pertains to the issues in the case that have been tried or could have been tried. This Court, consistent with the general rule, has expressly held that false testimony given in a proceeding is intrinsic fraud. We have stated that

[i]f a judgment was obtained upon false testimony or a fraudulent instrument and the parties were heard, the evidence submitted to and received consideration by the court, then it may be said that the matter has been actually tried, or was so in issue that it might have been tried and the parties are estopped to set up an intrinsic or direct fraud to vitiate the judgment, because the judgment is the highest evidence and cannot be contradicted by the parties to it.

Johnson v. Wells, 72 Fla. 290, 299, 73 So. 188, 191 (1916) (citation omitted).

The concept of fraud on the court has historically been limited in its application to ensure the finality of judgments and to avoid frequent attacks against final judgments. Prior to the adoption of Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.540(b), only what was defined as "extrinsic fraud" could, in reality, form the basis for relief from a judgment. Johnson v. Wells; Fair v. Tampa Electric Co. Further, such relief could be obtained only by an independent action in equity. There was no practical basis for relief from a judgment obtained by intrinsic fraud. Rule 1.540(b) was adopted in 1962 as Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.38(b) and was modeled on Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60. The Committee Note to rule 1.540 indicates that the rule is "[s]ubstantially the same as Federal Rule 60." In re Florida Rules of Civil Procedure 1967 Revision, 187 So.2d 598, 631 (Fla.1966). See 7 J. Moore & J. Lucas, Moore's Federal Practice p 60.31-33 (2d ed. 1983). The Florida rule was not intended to restrict the existing remedies. Like the federal rule, it was intended to provide a modern, simplified procedure for seeking relief from judgments. Further, the rule expanded, to a limited extent, the grounds for setting aside a judgment. Immediately following its adoption, it was explained that the rule abolished the use of the ancillary writs of coram nobis and audita querela as legal remedies and bills of review and bills in the nature of bills of review in equity. ... The rule was not intended to diminish the substantive remedial law but only to provide that certain remedies may be applied for by motion.

Barns & Mattis, 1962 Amendments to the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, 17 U.Miami L.Rev. 276, 291 (1963) (footnote omitted). See also 33 Fla.Jur.2d Judgments and Decrees § 352; Trawick, Florida Practice and Procedure § 26.8 (1982).

Under rule 1.540(b) ^* as it is presently written, a party may, by motion, seek to set aside a final judgment, decree, order, or proceeding on numerous grounds not previously available, including intrinsic fraud. Where the basis of the motion is mistake, inadvertence, surprise, excusable neglect, newly discovered evidence, intrinsic or extrinsic fraud, misrepresentation, or other misconduct of an adverse party, such motion must be made within a reasonable time and in no event more than one year from the entry of the final judgment. Prior to the adoption of rule 1.540(b), none of the stated grounds for a motion to set aside a judgment, with the exception of extrinsic fraud presented in an action in equity, could be used as the basis for seeking relief from a judgment. The writs of coram nobis and audita querela were available prior to the adoption of the rule, but for practical purposes these writs, because of their requirements, were not available for relief. The one-year limitations period of rule 1.540(b) does not apply where a judgment is void, where a judgment has been satisfied, released, or discharged, or where it is no longer equitable for a judgment to have prospective application. Further, the rule "does not limit the power of a court to entertain an independent action to relieve a party from a judgment, decree, order or proceeding or to set aside a judgment or decree for fraud on the court." Therefore, the rule clearly preserves the equitable remedy of an independent action where extrinsic fraud is...