Patterson v. Mobil Oil Corp.

206 F.R.D. 591, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7882, 2002 WL 825563
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Texas
DecidedMarch 28, 2002
DocketNos. 1:99-CV-156, 1:71-CV-087
StatusPublished

This text of 206 F.R.D. 591 (Patterson v. Mobil Oil Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Patterson v. Mobil Oil Corp., 206 F.R.D. 591, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7882, 2002 WL 825563 (E.D. Tex. 2002).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

COBB, District Judge.

Plaintiffs Ozan Patterson and John Ballenger filed suits for relief from judgments entered over 25 years ago in Ballenger’s case, and unstated times in Patterson’s case (or cases), each case based on alleged RICO violations by Mobil Oil Corporation and various insurance companies, upon a theory that alleged Mobil was in fact uninsured and also it falsely represented to its employees (in Ballenger’s case, his beneficiaries) it had a valid policy of workers’ compensation insurance. Thus, the theory continues, Mobil was liable for injuries or death if such employees could show Mobil’s negligence caused those injuries or deaths and Mobil was stripped of all of its common law defenses.

This court has now ruled on two motions for disqualification of this judge, and this memorandum will address the relevant motions still pending before the court. They are defendant’s motion for summary judgment, plaintiffs motion to set aside earlier judgments, motions for miscellaneous relief, motions for class certification, motion for further discovery, and motions for intervention as a matter of right, or for permissive intervention as a matter addressed to the court’s discretion.

MOTION TO RE-OPEN UNDER RULE 60(b)(3)

The “Request for Relief from Judgment” (Request) by plaintiff Ella Ray Whitehead (formerly Mrs. Thomas J. Ballenger) is rejected as untimely. The request under Fed. R.Civ.P. 60(b) is premised upon an allegation of “fraud,” which is a ground for relief from judgment under subpart 60(b)(3). Such a request cannot be filed more than one year after the judgment. Here, the judgment was final in 1974, over twenty-five years before the motion was filed. The rules also provide that this time limit to allege fraud to avoid a judgment cannot be extended beyond one year.

Moreover, the Supreme Court of the United States and the Fifth Circuit have held that a plaintiff cannot evade this absolute one-year time bar by advancing any of three contentions, each of which plaintiff erroneously advances in her request: (1) plaintiff cannot resort to the Rule 60(b)(6) “any other reason” clause; (2) plaintiff cannot claim a “fraud upon the court”; and (3) plaintiff cannot offer the request in the guise of an “independent action.” The court rejects these three contentions since they cannot be advanced upon the grounds stated in the request.

In any event, plaintiff has failed to set forth allegations of conduct on the part of Mobil that would justify application of Rule 60(b)(6), invocation of a “fraud upon the court,” or allowance of an independent action. The Supreme Court and Fifth Circuit require that the alleged conduct constitute “extraordinary circumstances” or be of the “most egregious” type (such as a bribery), and specifically cannot be alleged failure to disclose or misrepresentation in a pleading. Plaintiff alleges a misstatement by Mobil in a 1971 Answer that it had obtained workers’ compensation coverage from Forum Insurance Company (“Forum”), when allegedly the insurance program was a “farce” and a “facade.” Even assuming arguendo that Mobil made such a misrepresentation and failed to disclose the full nature of its program, such conduct is precisely the type of conduct that the Supreme Court and Fifth Circuit have held does not constitute “extraordinary circumstances” or “most egregious conduct” which is necessary to avoid a judgment under Rule 60(b)(6) as a “fraud upon the court,” or as an independent action.

The Supreme Court of the United states held in United States v. Beggerly, 524 U.S. 38, 118 S.Ct. 1862, 141 L.Ed.2d 32 (1998), held a 60(b) motion must be timely. The United States failed to find documents and disclose them to the claimants in a suit in[593]*593volving land. The papers would have been of aid to persons claiming the land, but the claimant lost in the trial court. The papers were later found (after several years) and produced to the claimant. In an effort to set aside the prior judgment in favor of the United States, the Supreme Court held:

If relief may be obtained through an independent action in a case such as this, where the most that may be charged against the Government is a failure furnish relevant information that would best form the basis for a Rule 60(b)(3) motion, the strict 1-year time limit on such motions would be set at naught.
The sense of those expressions is that, under the Rule, an independent action should be available only to prevent a grave miscarriage of justice. In this ease, it should be obvious that respondents’ allegations do not nearly approach this demanding standard. Respondents allege only that the United States failed to “thoroughly search its records and make full disclosure to the Court” regarding the Boudreau grant. App. 23. Whether such a claim might succeed under Rule 60(b)(3), we do not now decide; it surely would work no “grave miscarriage of justice,” and perhaps no miscarriage of justice at all, to allow the judgment to stand. We therefore hold that the Court of Appeals erred in eoncluding that this was a sufficient basis to justify the reopening of the judgment in the Adams case.

See also Nucor Corp. v. Nebraska Public Power District, 999 F.2d 372 (8th Cir.1993).

Apart from these defects in the request, plaintiffs factual allegations do not, as a matter of law, set forth any conduct that can be found to constitute “fraud,” a “misrepresentation,” or any illegal conduct on the part of Mobil. In short, plaintiff contends that Mobil owned Forum, that Mobil absorbed all amounts paid as workers’ compensation benefits, and that Mobil was, in effect, an illegal self-insurer. Fifth Circuit and Texas courts have, held, however, that workers’ compensation arrangements such as the Mobil-Forum arrangement are perfectly lawful under the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act (“TWCA”), as revised and amended. There is nothing improper, as the cases explain, with an employer ultimately paying for 100% of all workers’ compensation claims paid out by its carrier. As to the employees, such employer-carrier financial arrangements are immaterial. Gomillion v. Union Bridge & Construction Co., 100 F.2d 937 (5th Cir. 1939), where the court said:

The appellant contends that the insurance company assumed no risk that it merely handled the assured’s claims and losses as though the assured were a self insurer, and that the premium ultimately to be paid was based upon the losses and expenses. The contention is without merit. The insurance company did assume liability. The policy of insurance issued to the appellee, by its terms, placed a definite and fixed liability on the insurance company to pay “promptly to any persons entitled thereto, under the Texas Workmen’s Compensation Law and in the manner therein provided, the entire amount of any sum due, and all installments thereof as they become due.” The duty to see that premiums are accurately and fully paid is a question left entirely to the Board of Insurance Commissioners of Texas. So far as this appellant is concerned the question of premium payment is immaterial.

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206 F.R.D. 591, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7882, 2002 WL 825563, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/patterson-v-mobil-oil-corp-txed-2002.