Corning & Sons, Inc. v. McNamara

506 P.2d 1328, 8 Wash. App. 441, 1973 Wash. App. LEXIS 1456
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedMarch 1, 1973
Docket753-3
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 506 P.2d 1328 (Corning & Sons, Inc. v. McNamara) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Corning & Sons, Inc. v. McNamara, 506 P.2d 1328, 8 Wash. App. 441, 1973 Wash. App. LEXIS 1456 (Wash. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinions

McInturff, J.

Writ of certiorari was granted by this [442]*442court on January 17, 1973 to review an order of the Superior Court of Douglas County, dated November 3, 1972, denying petitioner’s motion to quash temporary restraining order and motion for change of venue.

On March 28, 1972 the respondent corporation as lessor, and petitioner as lessee, entered into a written sharecrop hay-farm agreement. Under the lease the petitioner had exclusive control over farming operations, including sale of its products. Respondent was to receive 40 percent of gross sale proceeds, to be paid in cash and chopped hay. No time was specified for payment under the lease.

On October 27, 1972 respondent filed its summons and complaint in Douglas County, alleging irreparable damage to the realty and nonpayment of sums due under the lease, and simultaneously procured an ex parte temporary restraining order from the court commissioner. This order provided that petitioner be:

restrained and enjoined from removing the products of the harvest from the leased premises and from disposing of the equipment removed from said leased premises, or disposing of the proceeds thereof;

Bond was set at $2,500. Petitioner moved on November 2, 1972 to quash the temporary restraining order and to change venue to Grant County. Both motions were denied on November 3, 1972. Thereafter petitioner filed a writ of certiorari in this court to review the denial of the motion to quash the temporary restraining order and for change of venue. On November 10, 1972 petitioner was served with an amended complaint for an injunction and an accounting, and for damages. The amended complaint additionally alleges damage to the sprinkler system, damages to land resulting from poor farming practices, and damages from fires of an unspecified nature.

Petitioner contends the trial court erred in granting the restraining order prior to hearing when no emergency was alleged, in that by so doing petitioner was deprived of due process of law, in the style of Sniadach v. Family Fin. [443]*443Corp., 395 U.S. 337, 23 L. Ed. 2d 349, 89 S. Ct. 1820 (1969); Fuentes v. Shevin, 407 U.S. 67, 32 L. Ed. 2d 556, 92 S. Ct. 1983 (1972); Lucas v. Stapp, 6 Wn. App. 971, 497 P.2d 250 (1972). The motion of respondent for the temporary restraining order is made “on the ground that the commission and continuance of such act [removing products of the harvest of leased premises] will produce great and irreparable injury to plaintiff.” No affidavit was filed in support of the motion.

The statute authorizing temporary restraining orders is RCW 7.40.050. It provides that no injunction is to be issued without reasonable notice “except that in cases of emergency to be shown in the complaint, the court may grant a restraining order until notice can be given . . .” (Italics ours.)

The due process clause of the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution, and article 1, section 3 of the Washington State Constitution void existing statutory or court rule provisions for any ex parte, prejudgment or premerit hearing orders which interfere with a party’s continued use and possession of property, unless there is an emergency or, as stated in Fuentes v. Shevin, supra, there are extraordinary circumstances. Prejudgment ex parte proceedings depriving use and/or possession of property was emphasized in 1969 when the Supreme Court of the United States decided Sniadach v. Family Fin. Corp., supra. The court held that the Wisconsin prejudgment garnishment procedure, whereby the defendant’s wages are frozen in the interim between the garnishment of wages and the culmination of the main suit without the defendant having a chance to be heard, violates the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The most significant recent United States Supreme Court case treating in a comprehensive way the taking of property under the due process clause of the constitution is Fuentes v. Shevin, supra. This case decided that the re-plevin laws of Florida and Pennsylvania violated the Fourteenth Amendment because they denied the right to a prior [444]*444opportunity to be heard before chattels were taken from their possessor, notwithstanding that he could regain possession by posting his security bond, and even though he would have an opportunity for a postseizure hearing. In answering the contention that the petitioner is secured by a bond, the court said, at page 82: “ ‘This Court has not . . . embraced the general proposition that a wrong may be done if it can be undone.’ ”

And, at page 87:

The right to be heard does not depend upon an advance showing that one will surely prevail at the hearing. “To one who protests against the taking of his property without due process of law, it is no answer to say that in his particular case due process of law would have led to the same result because he had no adequate defense upon the merits.” Coe v. Armour Fertilizer Works, 237 U.S. 413, 424. It is enough to invoke the procedural safeguards of the Fourteenth Amendment that a significant property interest is at stake, whatever the ultimate outcome of a hearing on the contractual right to continued possession and use of the goods.

(Footnote omitted.)

The appellate courts of our state have faced similar cases in the recent past. Lucas v. Stapp, supra, held that other than in extraordinary situations involving special protection (B,CW 7.12.020(10)) prejudgment attachment was unconstitutional because it violated the due process clauses of the United States and Washington Constitutions. Lucas had performed labor on an automobile for Stapp, and not having received payment therefor attached the automobile pending trial on the merits. The court said the car was a “significant property interest” which one could not be deprived of without a meaningful hearing. Seattle Credit Bureau v. Hibbitt, 7 Wn. App. 219, 499 P.2d 92 (1972) followed Lucas v. Stapp, supra.

In the instant case there is an allegation of irreparable injury or damage to the plaintiff, but the prayer of the complaint asks for nothing that will not be reduced to a money judgment. In the absence of a more specific compre[445]*445hensive allegation of fact, we hold that this is not an emergency under RCW 7.40.050, and therefore the issuance of the restraining order was a deprivation of a significant property right without procedural due process of law.

In Fuentes v. Shevin, supra at 91, the court set out some guidelines for the determination of what is an extraordinary situation. They are:

First, in each case, the seizure has been directly necessary to secure an important governmental or general public interest.

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Corning & Sons, Inc. v. McNamara
506 P.2d 1328 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1973)

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Bluebook (online)
506 P.2d 1328, 8 Wash. App. 441, 1973 Wash. App. LEXIS 1456, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/corning-sons-inc-v-mcnamara-washctapp-1973.