Fealey v. Fealey

38 P. 49, 104 Cal. 354, 1894 Cal. LEXIS 917
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 4, 1894
DocketNo. 15494
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 38 P. 49 (Fealey v. Fealey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fealey v. Fealey, 38 P. 49, 104 Cal. 354, 1894 Cal. LEXIS 917 (Cal. 1894).

Opinion

De Haven, J.

The defendant is the widow of William Fealey, deceased, and this action is brought for the purpose of annulling an order of the superior court of Napa county setting apart to her a homestead out of the estate of said deceased. The complaint alleges that the property so set apart was the separate property of the deceased, and that the defendant here, with knowledge of this fact and for the purpose of deceiving the court in which the administration proceedings were pending, filed a petition in which she falsely alleged that such property was community property, and asked that the same be set apart to her absolutely as a homestead; and that upon the hearing of the application she was a witness, and testified that the statement in her petition in relation to the character or title of such property was true. The complaint further alleges that this testimony was willfully false, and was given by the defendant for the purpose of deceiving the court; and that by reason thereof the court was in fact misled and deceived, and induced to make the order granting the prayer of defendant’s petition, and to set apart to her the land therein described as a homestead for her sole use and benefit. The order is set out in the complaint, and it appears from its recitals that the court found “ from the papers on file in the said matter and other evidence [358]*358introduced ” that the property so set apart was community property.

The complaint also shows that the deceased died intestate, and that the plaintiff, who is his mother, and the defendant are his only heirs at law; and it is further shown that prior to the making of the order sought to be annulled the plaintiff was adjudged an incompetent person, and a general guardian — the same person who brings the present action in her behalf— had been appointed to manage her estate. The complaint alleges that this guardian had actual notice of the proceeding upon the part of the defendant to obtain the order setting apart the homestead, and that he consulted certain lawyers in relation to the rights of plaintiff, and upon the facts which he laid before them was by them advised that the defendant was entitled to the order asked for in her petition, and that it would subject the plaintiff to useless expense to contest the right of defendant to have the land therein described set apart to her absolutely; but in this connection the complaint alleges that said guardian did not learn the true facts concerning the title to such land until after the entry of the order here assailed. The complaint also contains an averment that there was community property belonging to the estate of the deceased Fealey out of which a homestead could have been set apart, and that the existence of this property was fraudulently concealed by the defendant. This latter averment adds no strength to the complaint, and need not be further considered by us.

The defendant interposed a general demurrer to the complaint, which was overruled by the court, and, the defendant declining to answer, judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff, and in accordance with the prayer of the complaint. This ruling of the court presents the only question arising upon this appeal.

The demurrer to the complaint ought to have been sustained. The fraud which is set forth as the basis of the plaintiff’s cause of action relates to the alleged [359]*359falsity of defendant’s statement made in her petition for the order setting aside the homestead, and again repeated in her testimony upon the hearing of such petition, concerning the nature of the title to the land set apart to her as a homestead; hut the question of title thus presented and sought to be litigated in this action was necessarily involved in the proceeding to set apart the homestead, and the order or judgment of the court therein was a determination that the allegation of defendant’s petition in regard to the nature of the title to the land so set apart was true, and that her testimony relating to the same matter given upon the trial of that proceeding was also true. The plaintiff had notice of the pendency of that proceeding, and no fraud was practiced upon her by which she was prevented from appearing therein and contesting the' allegation of defendant’s petition, or showing that the testimony given by her was unworthy of credit. Under these circumstances that judgment is conclusive upon the plaintiff, and she cannot be permitted to bring into litigation the same matters therein involved and settled by that judgment. The case made by the complaint here falls exactly within the rule declared in United States v. Throckmorton, 98 U. S. 61; Griffith’s Estate, 84 Cal., 113; and Pico v. Cohn, 91 Cal. 129; 25 Am. St. Rep. 159.

In the first of these cases it was said by Mr. Justice Miller, in delivering the opinion of the court, that “the acts for which a court of equity will on account of fraud set aside or annul a judgment between the same parties, rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction, have relation to fraud extrinsic or collateral to the matter tried by the first court, and not to a fraud in a matter upon which the decree was rendered.” And in Pico v. Cohn, 91 Cal. 129, 25 Am. St. Rep. 159, the question was very carefully considered, and this court announced the same rule, saying: “The reason of this rule is that there must be an end to litigation, and when parties have once submitted a matter, or have had an oppor[360]*360tunity of submitting it for investigation and determination, and when they have exhausted every means of reviewing such determination in the same proceeding, it must be regarded as final and conclusive, unless it can be shown that the jurisdiction of the court has been imposed upon, or that the prevailing party, by some extrinsic or collateral fraud, has prevented a fair submission of the controversy.Endless litigation, in which nothing was ever finally determined, would be worse than occasional miscarriages of justice; and so the rule is that a final judgment cannot be aunulled merely because it can be shown to have been based on perjured testimony; for if this could be done once it could be done again and again, ad infinitum.”

These cases are, we think, conclusive of the one now before us. So far as concerns the question here presented, there is no difference in principle in the nature of the judgments under review in the above-cited cases and the order here sought to be annulled. The order setting apart the homestead to defendant (no homestead having been declared during the lifetime of the deceased) operated to vest in the defendant a title to the land so set apart (Estate of Boland, 43 Cal. 640; Estate of Moore, 96 Cal. 522); and such order was in the nature of a judgment in re to (Kearney v. Kearney, 72 Cal. 591); and the court, having jurisdiction to pronounce it, it is conclusive upon plaintiff and all persons interested in the estate, and can only be successfully attacked in equity upon the same grounds upon which a judgment in personam may be annulled.

The conclusion we have reached in this case is not at all in conflict with Wickersham v. Comerford, 96 Cal. 433.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
38 P. 49, 104 Cal. 354, 1894 Cal. LEXIS 917, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fealey-v-fealey-cal-1894.