extrinsic fraud

The CA ruled that the fraudulent affidavit and the fraudulent information in the different sets of birth certificates were perpetrated during the trial and thus could not be considered as extrinsic fraud as required in an action for annulment of judgment.

Extrinsic fraud refers to 'fraudulent act of the prevailing party in litigation committed outside of the trial of the case, whereby the defeated party is prevented from fully exhibiting his side of the case by fraud or deception practiced on him by his opponent, such as by keeping him away from court; by giving him a false promise of a compromise; or where the defendant never had the knowledge of the suit, being kept in ignorance by the acts of plaintiff; or where an attorney fraudulently or without authority connives at his defeat.'

It spelled out how Torres committed "extrinsic fraud" in excluding the affected residents from the suit, saying the failure to inform them of the civil case was "sufficient to justify the grant of a petition for annulment of judgment."

Extrinsic fraud, by contrast, does not invoke the one-year time limitation and involves conduct which is collateral to the issues to be tried in a case.

For instance, the positions of the appellate courts of British Columbia and Ontario hinged on the distinction between "intrinsic fraud" or "fraud which goes to the merits of the case and to the existence of a cause of action" and "extrinsic fraud" or "fraud going to the jurisdiction of the issuing court or the kind of fraud that misleads the court, foreign or domestic, into believing that it has jurisdiction over the cause of action." [ 24]

The state supreme court affirmed the decision, concluding that "the subornation of perjury by an attorney and/or the intentional concealment of documents by an attorney are actions which constitute extrinsic fraud." An attorney who engages in such conduct "effectively precludes the opposing party from having his day in court," wrote Justice E.C.

In his CA petition, Mendez the negligence and incompetence of his former lawyer was tantamount to an extrinsic fraud that would warrant the annulment of the trial court's decision.

He cited a 2006 Court of Appeals opinion that appears to recognize a general extrinsic fraud exception to the finality statute.

"I believe that the Supreme Court can give due course to a petition for review on certiorari, on the ground of extrinsic fraud, which was committed outside the narratives of the trial," said Santiago, who was one of the three senator-judges who voted to acquit Corona.

"Courts have drawn a distinction between 'intrinsic fraud' and 'extrinsic fraud' in an attempt to clarify the types of fraud that can vitiate the judgment of a foreign court.