Davis v. Parrish

961 P.2d 1198, 131 Idaho 595, 1998 Ida. LEXIS 90
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 1, 1998
Docket23358
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 961 P.2d 1198 (Davis v. Parrish) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. Parrish, 961 P.2d 1198, 131 Idaho 595, 1998 Ida. LEXIS 90 (Idaho 1998).

Opinions

JOHNSON, Justice.

This is an independent action to set aside a quiet title judgment. We conclude that the action is not barred by res judicata, that it was brought within a reasonable time, but that the trial court correctly granted summary judgment dismissing the claim.

I.

THE BACKGROUND AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS

Barbara Davis (Davis) and Carol Parrish (Parrish) are half sisters. In 1987, as co-personal representatives of their father’s estate, Davis and Parrish conveyed to themselves undivided one-half interests in two parcels of real property (the property) that their father had owned. In October 1993, Parrish sued Davis seeking a quiet title decree declaring that Parrish owned the property free of any interest of Davis. Among other allegations, Parrish alleged that: (1) she owned an undivided one-half interest in the property and possessed all the property, (2) she had paid all of the real property taxes on the property, (3) Davis had no right, estate, title, lien, or interest in or to the property, and (4) the status of the title to the property constituted a cloud on Parrish’s title to the property.

In an affidavit in support of a request to serve Davis by publication, Parrish stated that: (1) she and Davis, her half sister, received the property from their deceased father, (2) Davis’s whereabouts were unknown to Parrish, (3) Parrish had performed police checks and searches for Davis in Idaho, Oregon, and Minnesota and a fifty-state social [597]*597security check, without success in locating Davis, and (4) Parrish had paid the taxes since receiving the property. After finding good cause, the trial court allowed Parrish to serve Davis by publication. When Davis did not appear within the time allowed for response to the quiet title suit, the clerk of the trial court entered default. In December 1993, the trial court entered a decree (the decree) quieting title in Parrish.

Davis first learned of the decree in February 1996. In April 1996, Davis filed an independent action under rule 60(b) of the Idaho Rules of Civil Procedure (I.R.C.P.) seeking relief from the decree. The trial court granted summary judgment dismissing Davis’s suit on the grounds that it was not brought within a reasonable time, did not establish sufficient grounds for relief, and was barred by res judicata. Davis appealed.

II.

DAVIS’S SUIT IS NOT BARRED BY RES JUDICATA.

Davis asserts that her suit is not barred by res judicata. We agree.

In Compton v. Compton, 101 Idaho 328, 612 P.2d 1175 (1980), the Court recognized that I.R.C.P. 60(b) specifically preserves the following three means of attacking a final judgment: (1) to entertain an independent action to relieve a party from judgment; (2) to challenge, within one year, a judgment entered against a party not served personally and who defaulted; and (3) to set aside a judgment for fraud upon the court. Id. at 333-34, 612 P.2d at 1180-81.

To the extent that the trial court relied on res judicata in dismissing Davis’s suit, the trial court was incorrect. Claims brought under I.R.C.P. 60(b) are not barred by res judicata because they are one of the recognized “avenues ... for attacking a judgment.” Compton, 101 Idaho at 333, 612 P.2d at 1180.

III.

DAVIS’S SUIT WAS TIMELY.

Davis asserts that her suit was timely. We agree.

This Court has ruled that an independent action under I.R.C.P. 60(b) may be brought within a reasonable time. Compton, 101 Idaho at 334, 612 P.2d at 1181 (citing Gregory v. Hancock, 81 Idaho 221, 227, 340 P.2d 108, 111 (1959)).

“The question of reasonableness is ordinarily a question of fact to be resolved by the trier of fact----” Thiel v. Stradley, 118 Idaho 86, 88, 794 P.2d 1142, 1144 (1990). It is undisputed that Davis did not have notice of the decree quieting title in Parrish until January 1996. The trial court incorrectly focused on Davis’s actions before the quiet title action commenced, her lack of involvement in the property, and her failure to justify the delay in pursuing this action. Instead, it should have focused on Davis’s conduct from January 1996, when she had notice of the quiet title decree, to April 1996, when she filed this action. Considering this lapse of time, Davis’s suit was brought within a reasonable time.

IV.

THE TRIAL COURT CORRECTLY GRANTED SUMMARY JUDGMENT.

Davis asserts that there was fraud on the court justifying relief under I.R.C.P. 60(b). We conclude that the trial court correctly granted summary judgment dismissing Davis’s claim.

In Compton, the Court stated that an independent action seeking to set aside a judgment because of fraud upon the court requires “more than interparty misconduct, and, in Idaho, has been held to require more than perjury or misrepresentation by a party or witness, even where the misrepresentation was made to establish the court’s jurisdiction.” 101 Idaho at 334, 612 P.2d at 1181. Compton also noted that fraud upon the court “will be found only in the presence of such tampering with the administration of justice as to suggest a wrong against the institutions set up to protect and safeguard the public.” Id. (internal citations omitted).

[598]*598Davis contends that Parrish did not exercise due diligence in attempting to locate her and that the publication of the summons was void. The trial court determined that Parrish had good cause for publication of service in its order on the basis of Parrish’s motion and affidavit in which Parrish outlined her attempts to locate Davis. The trial court noted that Davis’s allegation that Parrish misled the court into allowing service by publication lacked merit because of the searches that Parrish performed, which concentrated on states in which Parrish believed Davis to be living. There is no basis for a claim of fraud on the court connected with Parrish’s attempt to locate Davis.

Davis contends that Parrish’s failure to disclose in the petition to quiet title that the parties were half sisters and cotenants was fraud on the court because if the cotenancy had been disclosed, the court would have insisted on evidence justifying a cotenant quieting title against another cotenant, and the court would have determined that the petition to quiet title lacked a legal basis. We note that Parrish’s affidavit in support of her request to serve Davis by publication stated: “[Parrish] received, through her deceased father, the real property described herein along with a half-sister, [Davis].... ” By this statement, the trial court was informed of both the family relationship of Davis and Parrish and that they had received some form of common ownership of the property from their father. Therefore, there is no basis for Davis’s contention that Parrish was guilty of fraud on the court because of a lack of disclosure of these facts.

Davis contends that the petition to quiet title failed to state both a factual and legal basis for relief. Because of Davis’s default, however, the allegations contained in the quiet title claim are deemed admitted. These admissions provided the necessary factual basis for the decree. In Hammitt v. Virginia Mining Co., 32 Idaho 245, 248, 181 P.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Pizzuto v. State
484 P.3d 823 (Idaho Supreme Court, 2021)
CMJ Properties, LLC v. JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.
406 P.3d 873 (Idaho Supreme Court, 2017)
Meyers v. Hansen
221 P.3d 81 (Idaho Supreme Court, 2009)
Bartosz v. Jones
197 P.3d 310 (Idaho Supreme Court, 2008)
Waller v. STATE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND WELFARE
192 P.3d 1058 (Idaho Supreme Court, 2008)
Camp v. East Fork Ditch Co., Ltd.
55 P.3d 304 (Idaho Supreme Court, 2002)
Kelley v. Kelley
2000 UT App 236 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 2000)
Viafax Corp. v. Stuckenbrock
995 P.2d 835 (Idaho Court of Appeals, 2000)
Grube v. State
995 P.2d 794 (Idaho Supreme Court, 2000)
Davis v. Parrish
961 P.2d 1198 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1998)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
961 P.2d 1198, 131 Idaho 595, 1998 Ida. LEXIS 90, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-parrish-idaho-1998.