Lang v. Lang

424 S.E.2d 190, 108 N.C. App. 440, 1993 N.C. App. LEXIS 84
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedJanuary 5, 1993
Docket9129SC966
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 424 S.E.2d 190 (Lang v. Lang) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lang v. Lang, 424 S.E.2d 190, 108 N.C. App. 440, 1993 N.C. App. LEXIS 84 (N.C. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

EAGLES, Judge.

Defendant brings forth six assignments of error in his appeal from the Superior Court’s 18 July 1991 denial of his G.S. 1A-1, Rule 60 motion to vacate or modify the 13 September 1990 summary judgment. We note initially that defendant made this motion on 8 May 1991, two days after his original appeal from the 13 September 1990 summary judgment was appropriately dismissed by the Superior Court. We further note that prior to that dismissal, defendant’s motion for an extension of time to serve the record on appeal in that appeal was denied by this Court and defendant’s petition for a writ of certiorari was subsequently denied by this Court and later by our Supreme Court. After careful examination of the record, we affirm the Superior Court’s 18 July 1991 order.

I.

Defendant contends that the Superior Court erred by denying his G.S. 1A-1, Rule 60(b)(2) motion to vacate or modify the judgment on the grounds that new evidence had been discovered. Defendant asserts that he with due diligence could not have discovered that *449 plaintiff had seized and foreclosed upon his property in Germany and that, had he known, he could have asserted the defense of partial or complete satisfaction of the 1985 German judgment on the loan. We disagree.

According to G.S. 1A-1, Rule 60(b)(2), a trial court may grant a party relief from a final judgment or order when there is “[n]ewly discovered evidence which by due diligence could not have been discovered in time to move for a new trial under Rule 59(b).” G.S. 1A-1, Rule 59(b) provides that a party has ten days after the entry of judgment to move for a new trial.

Defendant has failed to establish that the evidence could not have been discovered with due diligence within ten days after the summary judgment was entered on 13 September 1990. The divorce agreement entered before the German court in 1974 expressly stated that defendant’s property would serve as security for defendant’s obligation to pay the support payments. Defendant unilaterally ceased making these support payments in 1982. Because he had pledged his property as security for these support payments in the divorce decree, defendant should have reasonably expected that plaintiff would take appropriate actions (such as foreclosure) to assure payment of defendant’s obligation.

Accordingly, by the express terms of the 1974 divorce agreement, defendant had at least constructive knowledge that one of plaintiff’s possible alternatives included foreclosure on defendant’s property mentioned in the agreement. We find no merit in defendant’s contention that this constituted newly discovered evidence which by due diligence he could not have discovered in time to move for a new trial under G.S. 1A-1, Rule 59(b).

II.

Defendant contends that the Superior Court erred in denying his G.S. 1A-1, Rule 60(b)(3) motion by concluding as a matter of law that plaintiff had not made misrepresentations (concerning the proceeds from the German court’s foreclosure sale) to the Superior Court in obtaining the 13 September 1990 summary judgment. We disagree.

We note initially that defendant states in his brief that he “did not ask the [t]rial [c]ourt and is not asking this Court to review or take any action regarding the German [c]ourt’s seizure and sale of his property,” and we additionally note that even if *450 defendant tried to make this argument, it would fail. Despite this statement in defendant’s brief, defendant nevertheless argues that plaintiff made misrepresentations to the Superior Court by alleging that plaintiff made misrepresentations to the German court, thus “demonstratpng] a pattern by the [p]laintiff of deception and misrepresentation to the presiding [c]ourt.” This Court has previously held that

the final judgment of another jurisdiction may be collaterally attacked on three grounds: (1) lack of jurisdiction; (2) fraud in the procurement; or (3) that it is against public policy. Fungaroli v. Fungaroli, 53 N.C. App. 270, 278, 280 S.E.2d 787, 792 (1981); see also Courtney v. Courtney, 40 N.C. App. 291, 253 S.E.2d 2 (1979).
However, to make a successful attack upon a foreign judgment on the basis of fraud, it is necessary that extrinsic fraud be alleged. Id. Extrinsic fraud is that which is collateral to the foreign proceeding, and not that which arises within the proceeding itself and concerns some matter necessarily under the consideration of the foreign court upon the merits. See Horne v. Edwards, 215 N.C. 622, 624, 3 S.E.2d 1, 3 (1939).

J.I.C. Electric, Inc. v. Murphy, 81 N.C. App. 658, 660, 344 S.E.2d 835, 837 (1986) (emphasis in original). When the German judgments were rendered, defendant was a German citizen. Defendant has not contested before the German courts their exercise of jurisdiction in rendering those judgments. Defendant has failed to show extrinsic fraud and has failed to demonstrate that the judgments offend public policy. Accordingly, defendant has shown no reason for this Court to decline recognition under the principles of comity to all aspects of the German judgments. See Mayer v. Mayer, 66 N.C. App. 522, 527, 311 S.E.2d 659, 663, disc. review denied, 311 N.C. 760, 321 S.E.2d 140 (1984) (“Recognition of foreign decrees by a State of the Union is governed by principles of comity.”); 1 R. Lee, N.C. Family Law §104 (4th ed. 1979 & Cum. Supp. 1989).

Defendant specifically contends that plaintiff committed a misrepresentation before the Superior Court when she stated that she had not received a “setoff” from defendant as to the 1985 German judgment arising from defendant’s failure to repay the loan according to the terms of the 1974 divorce decree. Defendant contends that the excess funds received in the foreclosure action constituted this alleged setoff. However, as the record before us *451 and the findings of the Superior Court clearly demonstrate, the foreclosure action resulted from defendant’s failure to pay the support payments, an obligation unrelated to defendant’s obligation to repay the loan. Accordingly, no setoff existed as to the 1985 German judgment and plaintiff committed no misrepresentation before the Superior Court. We find defendant’s argument to be without merit.

III.

In his next two assignments of error, defendant contends that the Superior Court erred by: 1) finding that defendant was properly served with the German court’s foreclosure action in accordance with German law because defendant was “a resident alien of the United States [and t]he German court was required to comply with the Hague Convention on Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters [20 U.S.T. 36, T.I.A.S.

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Bluebook (online)
424 S.E.2d 190, 108 N.C. App. 440, 1993 N.C. App. LEXIS 84, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lang-v-lang-ncctapp-1993.