Hutchings v. FSS Corp.

37 Pa. D. & C.3d 240, 1982 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 22
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Somerset County
DecidedJanuary 21, 1982
Docketno. 343 Civil 1981
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 37 Pa. D. & C.3d 240 (Hutchings v. FSS Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Somerset County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hutchings v. FSS Corp., 37 Pa. D. & C.3d 240, 1982 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 22 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1982).

Opinion

COFFROTH, P.J.,

We have for consideration and disposition defendants’ preliminary objections (motion to strike paragraph 14; motion to strike and demurrer to Count one; motion to strike and demurrer to Count two) to plaintiffs complaint in trespass and assumpsit. The motions to strike state as their specific grounds that:

(1) Paragraph 14 of the general averments of the complaint “contain averments of scandalous, impertinent and irrelevant matters”; and

(2) Count one “fail[s] to show any breach of contract by the defendants”; and

(3) Count two “fails to allege the acts required by law to permit recovery for punitive or exemplary damages”.

Only points (1) and (3) above were briefed and pressed at argument, and will be considered. The case is best analyzed and understood by dealing first with point (3) (punitive damages) to which point (1) (alleged forgery) most closely relates.1

[242]*242Punitive Damages:

Count two of the complaint is in trespass for deceit, claiming compensatory and punitive damages. In order to justify punitive damages,, it.must appear that there was tortious conduct which is “outrageous”, that is “acts done with a bad motive or a reckless indifference to the interests of others.” W.W. Coal Company v. Pennsylvania National, 30 Somerset L. J. 69, 73, 75 D.&C.2d 621 (1975). Fraud, if severe, may be sufficiently outrageous to warrant punitive damages, as held in Spickler v. Lombardo, 31 Somerset L. J. 16, 32 (1976). But as stated in Weigle et al. v. Motors Insurance Corp. et al., 39 Somerset L. J. 109, 126, 19 D.&C.3d 449, 472 (1980):

“Bad faith conduct is not necessarily outrageous conduct. Even fraud is not necessarily outrageous conduct in all circumstances; hardly anyone would regard as outrageous the conduct of a parent who fraudulently obtained food for his starving infant. To be outrageous the conduct must be such a severe departure from prevailing moral values in terms of the evilness of motive or recklessness of the disregard of the victim’s rights and interests, such an extravagant, shocking, anti-social and extremely offensive misdoing, as' provokes instantly a cry of abhorrence.” (Citations omitted.) See also Commonwealth v. Kitchen Appliances Distributors Inc. (no. 1), 41 Somerset L. J. 368, 27 D.&C.3d 91 (1981). It is against that background of legal princi[243]*243pie that we must analyze this complaint’s averments to determine whether they are sufficient to warrant a finding of outrageous conduct.

This is an action by plaintiff-lessor against defendants-lessee on a strip mining lease, Count one of which is in assumpsit for alleged unpaid royalties and Count two of which is in trespass for damages for deceit. Only Count two is here involved. It alleges that the lease provides for coal removal royalties at a “rate of 6 percent F.O.B. coal pit price realization for each raw ton (but not less than $1.25 per ton) of merchantable raw coal as mined . . . not including transportation from lessor’s land as received by the lessee. The selling price . . . shall be what we as the operator receive for the coal in a bona fide arms-length sale” (lease paragraph 2). The complaint further alleges that the lessee has sold the coal to a third party (Wills) under a contract by which the third party mines and removes the coal, at a price which the lessee is treating as the “F.O.B. coal pit price realization” for purposes of calculating and paying royalties, that said contract price “is not a bona fide arms-length sale and was knowingly executed and delivered with the full knowledge that the same did not constitute a bona fide arms-length sale”, that “defendants intentionally, falsely, fraudulently, knowingly, wilfully, wantonly, and maliciously stated and represented to the plaintiff that the royalty paid- was the full amount that was due and payable and that the price on which she was paid was a bona fide arms-length sale, when in fact the amounts paid were not the full amounts due and payable, and were not bona fide arms-length sales, and did thereby deprive the plaintiff of a substantial amount of royalty that would be due and owing to her.” Count two’s claim for relief demands “compensatory and exemplary damages from the defen[244]*244dants in an.amount in excess of $10,000, as to each type of damage”, but the complaint does not otherwise fix or state a basis for calculation of the amount of damages suffered.

The complaint also alleges that while Wills was defendant’s operator in mining and removing the coal for defendants (with plaintiffs knowledge), the state mining permits were issued to Wills without plaintiffs knowledge and in fact a filed consent thereto by landowner bears plaintiffs forged signature; that defendants have refused to furnish plaintiff with a copy of their contract with Wills; and that royalties have been paid on the basis of six percent of $24.50 per ton (with unexplained variations) as the sale price of the coal under the lease, but that such is not the sale price F.O.B. the mine as prescribed by the lease and is instead “the charge made by . . . [Wills] to mine and remove the coal for the defendants”.

Since we are not considering either a general demurrer to or a motion for more specific pleading of the deceit cause of action, we shall assume that the elements of such cause of action are sufficiently pleaded. But,. as clearly stated in Weigle et al. v. Motors Insurance Corp. et al., supra, it does not necessarily follow from sufficient pleading of a deceit claim that punitive damages are permissible. Golomb v. Korns, 261 Pa. Super. 344, 348, 396 A.2d 430 (1978).2 Great specificity and detail are re[245]*245quired to establish the outrage which is essential to an award of punitive damages. This complaint lacks that specificity and detail. Our view is based primarily on the fofiowing;

(1) Although the alleged forgery may be sufficient to establish evilness of motive and outrage as respect that particular action, and may be an evidentiary factor in the whole context of facts as finally developed, the forgery does not yet appear to be causally related to the misrepresentation which allegedly was fraudulent and caused the loss. At the moment, the forgery appears to be collateral to the alleged deceit cause of action.

(2) The averment that the sum of $24.50 per ton of coal on which royalties have been paid is the charge made by Wills under its contract for mining and removal of the coal, is made speculative by the other averments of the complaint that plaintiff has been denied access to and apparently has not seen that contract.

(3) The averment that the represented price upon which the royalties paid are based is not a price arrived at in a bona fide arms-length sale, while suffi[246]*246cient to sustain a deceit claim, is materially weakened by failure by the complaint to allege what a bona fide arms-length price for the coal is or was. This is especially important since the very misrepresentations asserted as constituting the fraud relate to the price for the coal on which the royalties payable are based under the terms of the lease. While the complaint tells us what was false, it does not tell us what was true.

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Bluebook (online)
37 Pa. D. & C.3d 240, 1982 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 22, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hutchings-v-fss-corp-pactcomplsomers-1982.