Court Opinion

ID: 9850823
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:03:19.8642+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:44.251825
License: Public Domain

VANDE WALLE, Chief Justice,
concurring specially.
I concur with part I, II, IV and V of the majority opinion. I write separately with regard to Part III.
The majority considers the maxim that no one can take advantage of his or her own wrong, section 31-11-05(8), NDCC, but rejects its application to these facts. Perhaps the better maxim for the Court to apply is that found at section 31-11-05(15), NDCC, i.e., “[bjetween those who are ... equally in the wrong the law does not interpose.” That maxim is also stated as “[wjhere the fault is mutual, the law will leave the case as it finds it” or “[i]n a case of equal or mutual fault ... the condition of the party ... defending is the better one.” See definition of “In pari delicto potior est conditio defendentis”, Black’s Law Dictionary 6th Ed.
Or, as the Court applied it in Red River Valley Land Co. v. Harris, 42 N.D. 76, 172 N.W. 68, 69 (1919), “[h]ence it is that neither party has any remedy or cause of action against the other. Between those who are equally in wrong, the law does not interfere.” Thus, as between Kiker and Kaiser as plaintiffs and Walters and Imperial Oil as defen*653dants, the law would leave the ease where it finds it and would not aid Kiker and Kaiser in their attempt to recover from Walters and Imperial Oil.
This maxim is also closely related to the “clean hands” maxim. See 27 Am.Jur.2d Equity § 141 (1966). The rule is applied between parties to a fraudulent or illegal transaction and this case certainly fits that description. Although there are contentions by Kaiser that his fault is not as great as Walters, see Disciplinary Action Against Kaiser, 484 N.W.2d 102 (N.D.1992), that contention remains to me an allegation not yet determined. Without question there is enough duplicity in the facts to inculpate all three, Kaiser, Kiker, and Walters. Notwithstanding it is difficult for me to find any difference in the degree of fault, particularly when Kaiser, as an attorney, is held to a higher standard, the only method to determine whether that fault weighs equally would be to remand for yet another trial in this sordid relationship. But these parties have caused the judicial system enough trouble and the taxpayers of this State enough money as a result of their duplicity.
Furthermore, as noted in 27 Am.Jur.2d, supra, at page 677, although the principle of the maxim is that to give Kiker and Kaiser relief would contravene public morals and impair the good of society, the maxim should not be applied if to withhold relief would, to a greater extent, offend public morals. That is a close call here.
The majority notes that wrongdoers should be encouraged to settle with their victims. I agree. I am skeptical that Kiker and Kaiser’s purpose for settling was altruistic or that it would have occurred at all without the assignment of Chevron’s claim and the plot to recover their settlement costs by laying all the blame on Walters and Imperial Oil. Nevertheless, from the standpoint of the victims, payment is beneficial regardless of the motive of the wrongdoer.
There is a cost to the public in permitting mutual wrongdoers to recover one from the other by the use of the judicial system. I am reluctant to condone the use of the courts to aid them in their recovery. But I realize that we should encourage restitution to victims by wrongdoers and that restitution may not have been made but for the possibility of recovery from another wrongdoer and leniency or a recommendation of the leniency as attorney disciplinary proceedings. See Disciplinary Action Against Kaiser, supra. Furthermore, as the majority notes, this precedent may encourage future wrongdoers such as Walters to make restitution.
I reluctantly concur in the result reached by the majority opinion.
VANDE WALLE, C.J., RALPH J. ERICKSTAD, Surrogate Judge, and MICHAEL 0. McGUIRE, District Judge, concur.