Kuper v. Kuper

336 S.W.2d 819, 1960 Tex. App. LEXIS 2330
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 23, 1960
Docket6966
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 336 S.W.2d 819 (Kuper v. Kuper) 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
Kuper v. Kuper, 336 S.W.2d 819, 1960 Tex. App. LEXIS 2330 (Tex. Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

NORTHCUTT, Justice.

This is a suit brought by Nellie Earline Kuper against her former husband, Carl H. Kuper, seeking to vacate and set aside a divorce decree between the parties which was entered on April 22, 1956, insofar as a part of the property settlement was considered; and upon hearing of defendant’s motion for summary judgment, Rule 166-A, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, the same was sustained, with entry of final order that the petitioner take nothing and from that order appellant perfected this appeal. Appellant contended Mr. Kuper practiced fraud upon her as to the value of 2,211 shares of stock.

This appeal is presented upon two assignments of error as follows: First, thj trial court erred in granting appellee a summary judgment because appellant in her first amended original petition alleged a cause of action. Second, the trial court erred in granting appellee’s summary judgment because the depositions which were taken in the case did not as a matter of law eliminate the fact issue.

We are familiar with the rule involved in a motion for summary judgment where there is a question of fact to be determined and that under those circumstances the summary judgment should be denied, The purposes of the summary judgment rule *821 is not to decide issues of fact but to ascer-iain if any genuine issues of fact exist and ±o eliminate unmeritorious claims and untenable defenses. It is stated in the case •of Alexander v. Hagedorn, 148 Tex. 565, 226 S.W.2d 996, 998, by the Supreme Court as follows:

“Although the bill of review is an equitable proceeding, before a litigant can successfully invoke it to set aside a final judgment he 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. Garcia et al. v. Ramos et al., Tex.Civ.App., 208 S.W.2d 111, er. ref. Because it is fundamentally important in the administration of justice that some finality be accorded to judgments, these essentials have been ¡uniformly recognized by our courts; therefore, bills of review seeking relief from judgments ‘are always watched by courts of equity with extreme jealousy, and the grounds on which interference will be allowed are narrow and restricted’; and the rules are not to be relaxed merely because it may appear in some particular case that an injustice has been done. Harding v. W. L. Pearson & Co. et al., Tex.Com.App., 48 S.W.2d 964. As said by the Supreme Court of California, ‘Endless litigation, in which nothing was ever finally determined, would be worse than occasional miscarriages of justice.’ Pico v. Cohn et al., 91 Cal. 129, 25 P. 970, 971, 27 P. 537, 13 L.R.A. 336, 25 Am.St.Rep. 159.”

It was further stated in that case as follows:

“Fraud in its relation to attacks on final judgments is either extrinsic or intrinsic. Only extrinsic fraud will én-title a complainant to relief because it is a wrongful act committed ‘by the other party to the suit which has prevented the losing party either from knowing about his rights or defenses, or from having a fair opportunity of presenting them upon the trial. Such, for instance, as where he has been misled by his adversary by fraud or deception, did not know of the suit, or was betrayed by his attorney. In other words, fraud which denied him the opportunity to fully litigate ‘upon the trial all the rights or defenses he was entitled to assert. “Intrinsic fraud” in the procurement of a judgment is not ground, however, for vacating such judgment in . an independent suit brought for .that purpose. And within that term is included such matters as fraudulent instruments, perjured testimony, or any matter which was actually presented to and considered by the trial court in rendering the judgment assailed.’ State v. Wright, Tex.Civ. App., 56 S.W.2d 950, 952, which was cited with approval and substantially quoted by this court in Crouch et al. v. McGaw, 134 Tex. 633, 138 S.W.2d 94.”

The final judgment Of a court having jurisdiction over persons and subject matter can be attacked collaterally in equity after the time for appeal or other direct attack has expired only if extrinsic fraud is alleged. To constitute extrinsic fraud there must have been some representation or concealment by the defendant which prevented the plaintiff from having her day in court. In discussing the rule concerning extrinsic fraud it seems that most all the courts have adopted the statement made by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of United States v. Throckmorton et al., 98 U.S. 61, 25 L.Ed. 93 where it is stated:

“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 *822 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.”

In the case at bar Mr. Kuper originally filed the suit for divorce in Cause No. 4353 and Mrs. Kuper answered and filed a cross action asking that she be granted the divorce. Before the case came on for hearing the parties made and entered into a settlement agreement as to their community property. When the case came on for hearing in the divorce proceedings Mr. Kuper in open court stated that he would not further prosecute his suit for divorce and his suit was dismissed. Thereafter, the case proceeded upon the cross action of Mrs. Kuper and she was granted a divorcie from Mr. Kuper and the property settlement was approved by the court in the divorce judgment. In the divorce judgment the 2,211 shares of Rural Life Insurance Company common stock was given to Mr. Kuper as his property. The judgment further provided that any assets not therein described but thereafter discovered should be the joint property of Carl H. Kuper and Nellie Earline Kuper. So, under the provisions of said judgment and the deposition of Mrs. Kuper the only property involved herein is the 2,211 shares of stock mentioned above.

Mrs. Kuper testified in her deposition, which was in the summary judgment hearing, that when Mr. Kuper brought the suit for divorce she started to make some investigation in reference as to the property she and Mr. Kuper owned; that she got Mr. McCrory, former president of the Citizen State Bank at Dalhart, to assist her and that she consulted with him quite often.

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Bluebook (online)
336 S.W.2d 819, 1960 Tex. App. LEXIS 2330, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kuper-v-kuper-texapp-1960.