Miller v. Miller

• Decision Date: 24 March 1998
• Docket Number: No. 87615,87615
• Citation: 956 P.2d 887,1998 OK 24
• Parties: Jimmy D. MILLER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Judy A. MILLER a/k/a Judy Hall, Bill Hall, and Nora Hall, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

Page 887

956 P.2d 887

1998 OK 24

Jimmy D. MILLER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Judy A. MILLER a/k/a Judy Hall, Bill Hall, and Nora Hall Defendants-Appellees.

No. 87615.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma.

March 24, 1998.

Jack Tracey, Purcell, for Appellant.

W.S. Haselwood, Shawnee, for Appellee Judy A. Miller a/k/a Judy Hall.

Virginia Henson, Shawnee, for Appellees Bill and Nora Hall.

OPALA, Justice.

¶1 The dispositive issue presented on certiorari is whether the trial court erred in dismissing the plaintiff's action for damages and equitable relief against the defendants, who allegedly made false representations that plaintiff was the father of defendant Judy A. Miller's child and who revealed to the child, almost fifteen years later, that plaintiff was not the child's father. We answer in the affirmative as to plaintiff's damage claim, but in the negative as to his claim for equitable relief.

¶2 Jimmy D. Miller ("Jimmy") sued his former wife, Judy A. Miller a/k/a Judy Hall (now Judy Childers) ("Judy") and her parents, Bill and Nora Hall ("Judy's parents") for damages and equitable relief based on the theories of fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and quantum meruit. He alleges in his petition that for the purpose of inducing him to marry Judy, defendants in 1980 knowingly misrepresented to him that she was pregnant with his child, and continued to perpetrate this fraud against him for the next fifteen years for the purpose of causing him to perform the duties of husband and father. He further alleges that after carrying out this fraud for almost fifteen years and permitting him to develop a loving parent-child relationship, Judy and her parents suddenly and unexpectedly pulled the proverbial rug out from under him by revealing to the child that Jimmy was not in fact her father. Jimmy alleges that the defendants then further undermined his bond with the child by encouraging her to develop a relationship with her "real father" and her "real family."

¶3 The defendants responded with a motion to dismiss the petition for failure to state a cause of action. The trial judge granted defendants' motion, and plaintiff appealed. The Court of Civil Appeals, Division No. 1, affirmed the order of the trial court, holding that plaintiff cannot recover under (a) the theories of fraud or quantum meruit because he is prohibited by the provisions of 10 O.S.1991 § 3 from disputing paternity, and (b) the theory of intentional infliction of emotional distress because the acts complained of fail to meet the minimum degree of outrageousness necessary to state, prima facie, a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress. We disagree and hold that plaintiff's petition states a claim for fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress, but not for unjust

enrichment. More particularly, we pronounce that (a) the provisions of 10 O.S.1991 § 3 are inapplicable to plaintiff's fraud-based action at law, ¹ (b) plaintiff's action is not barred by preclusion doctrine, (c) Oklahoma recognizes a claim for fraudulent inducement into a valid marriage where the fraud goes to the essentials of the marital relationship, (d) plaintiff's petition states, prima facie, a case of intentional infliction of emotional distress, and (e) plaintiff fails to state a claim for which he may recover on a theory of unjust enrichment.

I THE ANATOMY OF LITIGATION

¶4 Jimmy D. Miller and Judy A. Hall were dating in the early months of 1980. Jimmy was seventeen years old and Judy was fifteen. According to Jimmy, in March of 1980, Judy and her parents, Bill and Nora Hall, informed him that Judy was pregnant, that the child was his, and that the child could only be his inasmuch as Judy had not had sexual relations with any man other than Jimmy. Relying on these representations, Jimmy married Judy on October 24, 1980, and they proceeded to live as husband and wife for nearly five years.

¶5 The child Judy was carrying at the time of her marriage to Jimmy, subsequently named A, was born on December 29, 1980. During their nearly five-year marriage, Jimmy, together with Judy, raised the child as his own, never disputing her legitimacy, believing at all times that the little girl was his biological child. Jimmy and Judy divorced in 1985. The divorce decree recites that Jimmy and Judy are the parents of a minor child named A. Jimmy alleges that Judy made that recitation to the court in the divorce proceeding, knowing it to be false. The court ordered Jimmy to pay child support for A in the amount of One Hundred Fifty Dollars ($150.00) per month beginning on August 1, 1985. Jimmy alleges that he has faithfully paid that amount as ordered. He was granted joint, but not primary, custody of A and has maintained a continuous parent-child relationship with his daughter since the divorce.

¶6 In early 1995, when A was approximately fifteen years old, she decided she no longer wanted to live with her mother. She moved into Jimmy's home. According to Jimmy, in January, 1996, almost one year after coming to live with her father, A informed him that when she had originally expressed a desire to live with him, her mother and her grandparents, Bill and Nora Hall, had told her that Jimmy was not her real father and had urged her to "get to know her 'real' family." According to Jimmy, A told him that her mother and grandparents had identified her real father, had introduced her to members of her "real family," had given photographs of A to members of this "real family", and had stated to her that there was nothing either she or Jimmy could do about it. ² Jimmy states that A's revelations in January, 1996 were the first notice he had had that Judy and her parents had deceived him in 1980 as to his paternity of the child Judy was then carrying. Jimmy and A underwent that very month a paternity test, which verified that Jimmy was not A's biological father.

¶7 Jimmy filed his petition on March 8, 1996, approximately two months after first learning that his paternity of A was being denied by his ex-wife and her parents. For his first theory of recovery, Jimmy alleges that he was fraudulently induced to marry Judy in 1980 by the knowing misrepresentations of Judy and her parents that he was the father, and that he was the only man who could possibly be the father, of the child with whom she was then pregnant because she had not had sexual intercourse with any other man. Relying on these allegedly knowing misrepresentations, Jimmy married Judy and took on the responsibilities of husband and father. For this fraud, Jimmy seeks damages against all defendants, including an amount equal to the sum of the court-ordered ¶8 For his second theory of recovery, Jimmy alleges that the defendants' marriage-inducing misrepresentations, the cruel paternity hoax perpetrated against him for fifteen years, the callous revelation of this hoax to him through A, and the effort to undermine his bond with A amount to extreme and outrageous conduct, causing him severe emotional distress. For the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress, Jimmy seeks damages against all defendants.

child support payments made since 1985, plus punitive damages.

¶9 For his third theory of recovery, Jimmy alleges that Judy has been unjustly enriched at his expense by an amount equal to the monthly court-ordered child support of One Hundred Fifty Dollars ($150.00) per month, which he has paid since August, 1985. Jimmy seeks from Judy restitution of all sums paid to her as child support and other equitable relief.

¶10 The defendants jointly filed a motion to dismiss in which they admitted only that (a) A was conceived in March of 1980, (b) Jimmy was seventeen years old at the time and Judy was fifteen, (c) Jimmy and Judy married in October, 1980, (d) A was born on December 29, 1980, and (e) Jimmy and Judy lived as husband and wife and raised A as a member of their family until their divorce in 1985.

¶11 The defendants urged the trial court to dismiss Jimmy's petition for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. They argued that the provisions of 10 O.S.1991 § 3 and the doctrine of res judicata bar Jimmy from recovering damages or obtaining other relief from them on any of the theories advanced. The trial court agreed and granted defendants' motion to dismiss. Jimmy appealed.

¶12 In a split decision the Court of Civil Appeals affirmed the trial court's order, holding that in order to prove his fraud and quantum meruit damages, Jimmy would have to dispute his paternity of A. This, the Court of Civil Appeals ruled, is barred by the terms of 10 O.S.1991 § 3, which provide a two-year time limit for disputing paternity under certain circumstances, all of which obtain here. Noting the absence of an explicit exception for fraud in Section 3, the appellate court refused to create an implied exception, saying that "[t]he desire to protect innocent children and to foster long term parental bonds is not furthered by creating a fraud exception." Characterizing Jimmy's request for damages as "the return of all child support paid along with interest," the Court of Civil Appeals held that since Jimmy was A's legal father at the time he was ordered by the court to pay child support, he was and continues to be legally obligated to make such payments, and is not entitled to the return of that which he was and still is legally obligated to pay. Having determined that under the provisions of 10 O.S.1991 §§ 1 et seq. Jimmy was A's legal father at the time of the divorce, the Court of Civil Appeals deemed it unnecessary to inquire into whether Judy had fraudulently misled the court in the divorce action about Jimmy's paternity of A. As for Jimmy's claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, the appellate court held that the facts alleged in the petition as the basis for Jimmy's claim, characterized as "confessing a fifteen-year lie to the child and revealing the identity of her...