Powell v. Doyle

77 Pa. Super. 520, 1921 Pa. Super. LEXIS 309
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 21, 1921
DocketAppeal, No. 49
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 77 Pa. Super. 520 (Powell v. Doyle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Powell v. Doyle, 77 Pa. Super. 520, 1921 Pa. Super. LEXIS 309 (Pa. Ct. App. 1921).

Opinion

Opinion by

Linn, J.,

The rule to be applied in determining this appeal was thus stated in McEvoy v. Quaker City Cab Co., 267 Pa [522]*522527 at 536; “......this court has adopted the same rule which is asserted in our previous citations, to the effect that when a new trial is asked for on the ground of perjury or other fraud, it will be granted only in case of fraud alleged as extrinsic in its character as distinguished from intrinsic evidence.” In that case as in this, appellant, after the expiration of the term at which the judgment was entered on the verdict of a jury, had asked to have it opened and for a new trial. The definition of extrinsic and intrinsic fraud as stated in Bleakley v. Barclay, 75 Kansas 462, was accepted in the following quotation: “By the expression ‘extrinsic or collateral fraud’ is meant some act or conduct of the prevailing party which has prevented a fair submission of the controversy. Among these are the keeping of the defeated party away from court by false promise of compromise, or fraudulently keeping him in ignorance of the action. Another instance is where an attorney without authority pretends to represent a party and corruptly connives at his defeat, or where an attorney has been regularly employed and corruptly sells out his client’s interest. The fraud in such case is extrinsic or collateral to the question determined by the court. The reason for the rule is that there must be an end to litigation; and, where a party has had his day in court and knows what the issues are, he must be prepared to meet and expose perjury then and there: Pico v. Cohn, 91 Cal. 129. Where the alleged perjury relates to a question upon which there was a conflict, and it was necessary for the court to determine the truth or falsity of the testimony, the fraud is intrinsic and is concluded by the judgment, unless there be a showing that the jurisdiction of the court has been imposed upon, or that by some fraudulent act of the prevailing party the other has been deprived of an opportunity for a fair trial.” As the fraud alleged in this appeal is intrinsic and not extrinsic in character appellant has not brought himself within the rule entitling him to relief. He avers that defendant obtained a ver[523]*523diet by false testimony given by berself and one Carter called on her behalf. Of course, at any time prior to the entry of the judgment and even thereafter during the term, the record was within the control of the court to furnish to appellant any relief to which in that time he might show himself entitled: Lance v. Bonnell, 105 Pa. 46, and we have no doubt that if the facts set forth in the petition now before the court had been called to the attention of the court within that time, a second trial would have been granted.

After the term the case stands otherwise, and necessarily so, upon grounds of public policy. “There are no maxims of the law more firmly established, or of more value in the administration of justice, than the two which are designed to prevent repeated litigation between the same parties in regard to the same subject of controversy; namely, interest rei publiese, ut sit finis litium, and nemo debet bis vexari pro una et eadam causa.

“If the court has been mistaken in the law, there is a remedy by writ of error. If the jury has been mistaken in the facts, the remedy is by motion for new trial. If there has been evidence discovered since the trial, a motion for a new trial will give appropriate relief. But all these are parts of the same proceeding, relief is given in the same suit, and the party is not vexed by another suit for the same matter. So in a suit in chancery, on proper showing a rehearing is granted. If the injury complained of is an erroneous decision, an appeal to a higher court gives opportunity to correct the error. If new evidence is discovered after the decree has become final, a bill of review on that ground may be filed within the rules prescribed by law on that subject. Here, again, these proceedings are all part of the same suit, and the rule framed for the repose of society is not violated.

“But there is an admitted exception to this general rule in cases where, by reason of something done by the successful party to a suit, there was in fact no adversary [524]*524trial or decision of the issue in the case. 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 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. See Wells, Res Adjudicata, sect. 499; Pearce v. Olney, 20 Conn. 544; Wierich v. DeZoya, 7 Ill. 385; Kent v. Ricards, 3 Md. Ch. 392; Smith v. Lowry, 1 Johns. Ch. (N. Y.) 320; DeLouis et al. v. Meek et al., 2 Iowa 55.

“In all these cases, and many others which have been examined, relief has been granted, on the ground that, by some fraud practiced directly upon the party seeking relief against the judgment or decree, that party has been prevented from presenting all of his case to the court”: U. S. v. Throckmorton, 98 U. S. p. 61, quoted in McEvoy’s Case, supra.

Relief was granted pursuant to the rule quoted in the following cases where the fraud was extrinsic: In Fisher v. Ry. Co., 185 Pa. 602, the court and one of the parties were imposed upon, as the opinion states by “the fraud of the plaintiff and his interpreter by which the verdict was obtained through false interpretation of the testimony.” Obviously if the interpretation of the evidence of the witnesses was false, neither the court nor the jury tried the case really before them. In Cochran v. Eldridge, 49 Pa. 365, it appeared that one Townsend pretended to represent Eldridge at an arbitration, that Eldridge was ignorant of it, and that a judgment against [525]*525him resulted. “It will be noticed,” said Justice Dean in Gazzam v. Reading, 202 Pa. 231, commenting upon Cochran v. Eldridge, “that Eldridge never had his day in court; was never heard to show, that he owed Townsend nothing and therefore could owe the plaintiff Cochran his transferee nothing; and the verdict [on a feigned issue in the proceeding to open] settled the fact, that these two were in collusion to obtain the judgment against Eldridge. The fraud perpetrated was not only upon the defendant, Eldridge, but upon the court, for when judgment was entered upon the award, the implied representation to the court, from its own records, was, that Eldridge was represented in the proceedings resulting in the award, whereas, as the court demonstrated, this was false.” In Hambleton v. Yocum, 108 Pa. 304, a verdict was obtained by collusion among lawyers who did not represent parties for whom they purported to act, and who had no notice of the proceeding. This of course was a fraud upon them and upon the court.

In Gazzam v. Reading, 202 Pa. 231 at 238, the court says: “Every suitor in a dispute involving life, liberty, property or reputation is entitled by right to one trial, but not to two; if he gets more than one it is of grace, not because of a fundamental right.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
77 Pa. Super. 520, 1921 Pa. Super. LEXIS 309, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/powell-v-doyle-pasuperct-1921.