Bristow v. Bristow

834 S.W.2d 497, 1992 Tex. App. LEXIS 1601, 1992 WL 141824
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 25, 1992
DocketNo. 11-91-153-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 834 S.W.2d 497 (Bristow v. Bristow) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bristow v. Bristow, 834 S.W.2d 497, 1992 Tex. App. LEXIS 1601, 1992 WL 141824 (Tex. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

OPINION

McCLOUD, Chief Justice.

J. Gordon Bristow filed a bill of review seeking to set aside an “Agreement Incident to Divorce” which was incorporated into a divorce decree dissolving the marriage of plaintiff and Jan Iden Bristow. Based upon jury findings, the trial court set aside the property settlement agreement and divided the property between the parties. Defendant, Jan Iden Bristow, appeals. We reverse and render.

Plaintiff and defendant were married in January of 1983. They entered into a written agreement incident to divorce on June 28, 1984. Both parties signed the agreement which was prepared by defendant’s attorney after the parties requested that plaintiff’s attorney withdraw from the case. On June 29,1984, a decree of divorce was entered providing that the property settlement agreement entered into by the parties was approved and incorporated into the divorce decree.1 The bill of review was filed on November 7, 1987.

The jury found that plaintiff lacked the mental capacity to know and understand the nature and consequences of his act when he signed the June 28, 1984, property settlement agreement; that the failure of plaintiff to defend against the property settlement agreement was due to undue influence upon plaintiff exerted by defendant in an effort to gain control of a part of plaintiff’s property; and that plaintiff’s failure to defend against the approval and incorporation of the property settlement agreement in the divorce decree was unmixed with any fault or negligence on the part of plaintiff.

Jan Iden Bristow urges, in her first point of error, that the trial court erred in overruling her motion for a directed verdict. We agree.

The Supreme Court in Alexander v. Hagedorn, 226 S.W.2d 996 (Tex.1950), announced the general rules regarding equitable bill of review proceedings. The court pointed out that it is fundamentally important in the administration of justice that some finality be accorded to judgments and that grounds for attacking a judgment must be narrow and restricted. The rules are not to be relaxed merely because it may appear in a particular case that an injustice has been done. The court noted that endless litigation, in which nothing was ever finally determined, would be worse than occasional miscarriages of justice. The court held that a party in an equitable proceeding to set aside a final judgment must allege and prove:

(1) [A] meritorious defense to the cause of action alleged to support the judgment, (2) which he was prevented from making by the fraud, accident or wrongful act of the opposite party, (3) unmixed with any fault or negligence of his own.

See also Baker v. Goldsmith, 582 S.W.2d 404 (Tex.1979), and Petro-Chemical Transport, Inc. v. Carroll, 514 S.W.2d 240 (Tex.1974).

The Hagedom Court held that only “extrinsic fraud,” as opposed to “intrinsic fraud,” will support a bill of review. The court in Montgomery v. Kennedy, 669 S.W.2d 309 (Tex.1984), stated that extrinsic fraud is that fraud which denies a losing litigant the opportunity to fully litigate his rights or defenses at trial. It is “collateral” fraud in the sense that it must be collateral to the matter actually tried and not something which was actually or potentially in issue in the trial. The court added:

Extrinsic fraud is conduct that prevents a real trial upon the issues involved. O’Meara v. O’Meara, 181 S.W.2d 891, 893 (Tex.Civ.App.—San Antonio 1944, writ ref'd). Intrinsic fraud, on the other hand, is inherent in the matter considered and determined in the trial “where the fraudulent acts pertain to an issue involved in the original action, or where the acts constituting the fraud [499]*499were, or could have been litigated therein.” Mills v. Baird, 147 S.W.2d 312, 316 (Tex.Civ.App.—Austin 1941, writ ref’d).

The record reflects that both plaintiff and defendant had serious drinking problems. Plaintiff had been an alcoholic for several years. He described defendant’s influence on his use of drugs and alcohol as follows:

Q: Let’s talk for a minute, Mr. Bristow, if you would, about what part in [it] if any Jan Bristow played in your consumption of alcohol and drugs.
A: Well, when — when we were first married, I was so screwed up, and I would leave the house and go over to my apartment, sometimes, to try to withdraw. And I would drink sometimes over there to try to taper off the stuff. And I would try not to drink anything.
And she would call me up at night, and she would be wanting me to come back over there. And a lot of times, I would. And I ended up starting to drink again and everything like that and getting screwed up and screwed up. And I would keep going back over there, and she would call me, and I would not want to go back over there. And several times, a lot of times, she had threatened suicide. And I’m screwed up, too. And since my father committed suicide, I’m very sensitive to that, and I would go back over there.
And, also, in our living together, I had never drunk daily all along before, except sometimes on binges, and Jan would be drinking all the time. And whenever I was not in a good mood or basically doing what she wanted, she would say, “Why don’t we have some more drinks,” and stuff. Now, she did not pour it down me, but it was like that.
And then at different times when she would want different things, she would— as my disease progressed, I got to a situation where I would do just about anything to keep people from yelling at me. I mean, its incredible for anybody who’s never had that. And to go through the withdrawals, I couldn’t do that with somebody yelling at me, and I would have more and more to drink.

Plaintiff testified that he did not remember anything about the property settlement agreement or the divorce. On cross-examination, plaintiff testified:

Q: Now, I want to ask you, Mr. Bristow, you keep telling us that you cannot remember what went on around the time of this divorce or the signing of the agreement incident or even the first draft. But just because you can’t remember today, you’re not telling this jury that you and Jan didn’t discuss those terms, are you?
A: I’m not saying that we didn’t discuss certain terms, but I’m saying that I don’t remember discussing them, and I was not competent. I could have been in blackouts or whatever when I was discussing them.

Regarding fault, plaintiff testified:

Q: Sir, it’s a fact that whenever there’s something that you don’t like, it’s somebody else’s fault, correct?
A: No.
Q: Your drinking is going to be the fault of somebody else, right?
A: No.
Q: And there’s some explanation for your drinking other than your fault, right?

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Bluebook (online)
834 S.W.2d 497, 1992 Tex. App. LEXIS 1601, 1992 WL 141824, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bristow-v-bristow-texapp-1992.