Rule 60 - Fraud and Mistake

Below is an excerpt from a brief I am working on dealing with fraud and mistake under Rule 60 of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure.

"Rule 60(b)(1) deals with relief from judgment obtained by fraud, misrepresentation, or other misconduct of the adverse party." Stringfellow v. Stringfellow, 451 So. 2d 219, 221 (Miss. 1984) (emphasis added).  A party is not entitled to relief merely because he is unhappy with the judgment, but he must make some showing that he was justified in failing to avoid mistake or inadvertence; gross negligence, ignorance of the rules, or ignorance of the law is not enough. King v. King, 556 So.2d 716, 722 (Miss. 1990).  A party seeking to set aside an order based on fraud or mistake must prove four things: (1) that the facts constituting the fraud... [or] mistake ... must have been the controlling factors in the effectuation of the original decree, without which the decree would not have been made as it was made; (2) the facts justifying the relief must be clearly and positively alleged as facts and must be clearly and convincingly proved; (3) the facts must not have been known to the injured party at the time of the original decree; and (4) the ignorance thereof at the time must not have been the result of the want of reasonable care and diligence.  Rogers v. Rogers, 94 So.3d 1258, 1264 (¶ 19) (Miss. Ct. App. 2012) (quoting Manning v. Tanner, 594 So.2d 1164, 1167 363*363 (Miss. 1992)); accord Jenkins v. Jenkins, 757 So.2d 339, 343 (¶ 8) (Miss. Ct. App. 2000) (quoting Guthrie v. Guthrie, 226 Miss. 190, 84 So.2d 158, 161 (1955).