Chewning v. Ford Motor Co.

550 S.E.2d 584, 346 S.C. 28, 2001 S.C. App. LEXIS 79
CourtCourt of Appeals of South Carolina
DecidedJune 4, 2001
DocketNo. 3351
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 550 S.E.2d 584 (Chewning v. Ford Motor Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chewning v. Ford Motor Co., 550 S.E.2d 584, 346 S.C. 28, 2001 S.C. App. LEXIS 79 (S.C. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

HEARN, Chief Judge:

Ray H. Chewning, Jr. filed this action in equity for fraud and for fraud upon the court against Ford Motor Company (Ford), David Bickerstaff, and David Bickerstaff and Associates, Incorporated (collectively, Defendants), to set aside a judgment in an earlier products liability case. The circuit court granted Defendants’ motion for judgment on the pleadings, concluding the complaint alleged intrinsic fraud which cannot serve as the basis for vacating a judgment after more than one year. As an additional sustaining ground, the court held Chewning failed to plead fraud with specificity as required by Rule 9(b), SCRCP. Chewning appeals. We reverse.

FACTS/PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In April 1990, Chewning suffered injuries in a rollover crash of his Ford Bronco II. He filed a products liability claim against Ford and the car dealership that sold him the automobile. After a sixteen-day trial in 1993, a jury returned a verdict in favor of Ford. The trial court denied Chewning’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or a new trial.

Within one year of the judgment, Chewning sought relief pursuant to Rule 60(b)(1) and (3), SCRCP, on the grounds of newly discovered evidence and fraud, alleging Bickerstaff, the former design engineer for Ford’s Light Truck Engineering Department and one of Ford’s witnesses, committed perjury during the trial. This motion was denied.

In 1998, Chewning brought this independent action, asserting several causes of action including fraud upon the court. The Defendants removed the case to the United States District Court for South Carolina. The district court dismissed [32]*32all of Chewning’s claims except his action for fraud upon the court. Chewning v. Ford Motor Co., 35 F.Supp.2d 487 (D.S.C. 1998). The district court remanded the fraud upon the court claim together with “such other related claims in equity, if any, as the state court may allow to be added by amendment.” Id. at 492.

Chewning refiled his case in the circuit court asserting causes of action for fraud upon the court and an independent action in equity for fraud. In his amended complaint, Chewning alleged the judgment in the original products liability case should be vacated because:

(1) Defendants’ and Ford’s attorneys knowingly purchased and used the false testimony of BICKERSTAFF in favor of FORD during FORD’S defense of the BRONCO II CASES and concealed this from Plaintiffs and
(2) FORD fraudulently concealed, hid and misrepresented to the Plaintiffs and the Courts about the existence and location of documents ... that provide evidence that was favorable to Plaintiffs’ cases and evidence that FORD knew, or should have known, would harm Plaintiffs’ defense.

Among other allegations, Chewning contends Ford and its attorneys bought favorable and untruthful testimony from Bickerstaff. While at Ford, Bickerstaff criticized the Bronco II and recommended certain unimplemented corrective measures. Curiously, when litigation arose concerning the Bronco II, Bickerstaff, then a member of an engineering consulting firm, agreed to testify as a witness “in Ford’s favor” in exchange for large sums of money. Chewning alleges this scheme persisted through multiple trials and depositions until a memo detailing Ford’s and Chewning’s arrangement was discovered.

The Defendants successfully filed a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), SCRCP. This appeal follows.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

Generally, a ruling on a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), SCRCP, must be based solely on the allegations contained in the complaint. Baird v. Charleston County, 333 S.C. 519, 527, 511 S.E.2d 69, 73 (1999). “Viewing the evidence in favor of the plaintiff, the motion must be granted if facts [33]*33alleged in the complaint and inferences reasonably deducible therefrom do not entitle the plaintiff to relief on any theory of the case.” Jarrell v. Petoseed Co., 331 S.C. 207, 209, 500 S.E.2d 793, 794 (Ct.App.1998).

DISCUSSION1

Chewning argues the circuit court erred in dismissing his claim as untimely. We agree. Under Rule 60(b), SCRCP, a party may seek to set aside a final judgment for fraud upon the court. This right is independent of the Rule 60(b)(3) ground for relief for fraud, misrepresentation, or other misconduct by an adverse party. Relief for fraud upon the court is not subject to the one year limit placed on relief under Rule 60(b)(3). See H. Lightsey & J. Flanagan, South Carolina Civil Procedure 407 (2d ed.1985). Therefore, we find the circuit court erred in dismissing Chewning’s claim as untimely under Rule 60(b)(3).

Chewning also argues the circuit court erred in its application of the law of extrinsic and intrinsic fraud. We agree because we find the facts asserted in the amended complaint constitute a valid claim for relief for fraud upon the court.

Fraud upon the court is “fraud which ... subverts] the integrity of the Court itself, or is a fraud perpetrated by officers of the court so that the judicial machinery cannot; perform in the usual manner its impartial task of adjudging cases that are presented for adjudication.” Evans v. Gunter, 294 S.C. 525, 529, 366 S.E.2d 44, 46 (Ct.App.1988) (emphasis added) (quoting Lightsey & Flanagan, supra, at 408). It has also been defined as “fraud that does, or at least attempts to, defile the court itself____” 12 Moore’s Federal Practice § 60.21[4][a] (3d. ed.2000). Historically, after the period to claim relief under Rule 60(b)(1) through (3), SCRCP, has expired, courts have required a showing of extrinsic fraud to vacate a judgment. See Hagy v. Pruitt, 339 S.C. 425, 430, 529 S.E.2d 714, 717 (2000); Evans, 294 S.C. at 529, 366 S.E.2d at 46.

[34]*34South Carolina law maintains a distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic fraud. Mr. G v. Mrs. G, 320 S.C. 305, 307-08, 465 S.E.2d 101, 102-03 (Ct.App.1995) (Hearn, J. dissenting). “Intrinsic fraud refers to fraud presented and considered in the judgment assailed, including perjury and forged documents presented at trial.” Evans, 294 S.C. at 529, 366 S.E.2d at 46. It is fraud which “goes to the merits of the prior proceeding which the moving party should have guarded against at the time.” City of San Francisco v. Cartagena, 35 Cal.App.4th 1061, 41 Cal.Rptr.2d 797, 801 (1995), quoted with approval in Mr. G, 320 S.C. at 308, 465 S.E.2d at 103. By contrast, extrinsic fraud “refers to frauds collateral or external to the matter tried such as bribery or other misleading acts which prevent the movant from presenting all of his case or deprives one of the opportunity to be heard.” Lightsey & Flanagan, supra, at 486; see also Hilton Head Ctr., Inc. v. Pub. Serv. Comm'n, 294 S.C. 9, 11, 362 S.E.2d 176

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Bluebook (online)
550 S.E.2d 584, 346 S.C. 28, 2001 S.C. App. LEXIS 79, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chewning-v-ford-motor-co-scctapp-2001.