John Latta Associates, Inc. v. Vasilchenko

246 P.3d 72, 240 Or. App. 96
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedDecember 29, 2010
Docket060101141 A142044
StatusPublished

This text of 246 P.3d 72 (John Latta Associates, Inc. v. Vasilchenko) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
John Latta Associates, Inc. v. Vasilchenko, 246 P.3d 72, 240 Or. App. 96 (Or. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

246 P.3d 72 (2010)
240 Or. App. 96

JOHN LATTA ASSOCIATES, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Sergey A. VASILCHENKO, Defendant-Respondent.

060101141; A142044.

Court of Appeals of Oregon.

Submitted December 4, 2009.
Decided December 29, 2010.

*73 Thomas J. Murphy and Scott ♦ Hookland LLP filed the briefs for appellant.

Sergey A. Vasilchenko filed the brief pro se.

Before HASELTON, Presiding Judge, and ARMSTRONG, Judge, and ROSENBLUM, Judge.

ARMSTRONG, J.

Plaintiff appeals an order in which the trial court denied plaintiff's motion to authorize a sale of residential real property. Plaintiff obtained a judgment against defendant in Multnomah County in 2006 that included an award of money. Pursuant to ORS 18.150(2)(a), the judgment constituted a lien against all real property owned by defendant in Multnomah County, including a house that defendant sold to his brother after the judgment lien had attached to it. Plaintiff sought court authorization to sell the house under a writ of execution to enforce its judgment. ORS 18.904; ORS 18.906. The trial court denied plaintiff's motion on the ground that defendant's brother had purchased the house in good faith without having actual notice of plaintiff's judgment and, hence, that the brother's interest in the property was not subject to the lien of plaintiff's judgment. On appeal, plaintiff asserts that the trial court erred because defendant's brother had constructive notice of plaintiff's judgment when he bought the house and, in turn, because the good faith purchaser exception in ORS 18.165 does not apply to the brother's purchase. For the reasons explained below, we reverse and remand.

The material facts of this case are undisputed. Plaintiff sold building materials to Advanced Building Restorations LLC under a credit agreement in which defendant, as principal of Advanced Building Restorations, guaranteed payment of the account. The company stopped making payments on its account, so plaintiff sued defendant on his guaranty and obtained a default judgment against him for $12,963.67. The judgment was entered in Multnomah County in March 2006, together with a note in the trial court register that the judgment created a judgment lien. ORS 18.150(1). Pursuant to ORS 18.150(2), the judgment lien attached to defendant's real property in Multnomah County.

At the time the judgment was entered, defendant owned a house in Portland within Multnomah County. Roughly nine months later, defendant conveyed the house to his brother by a statutory warranty deed, which was recorded on December 28, 2006. In March 2008, plaintiff moved the trial court for authorization to execute against the house to satisfy its judgment. ORS 18.906. At the hearing on plaintiff's motion, defendant and his brother testified that they had not known of plaintiff's judgment when the brother purchased the house. They further testified that a bank had financed the purchase and, in that transaction, the brother had received a copy of a title report that did not disclose the existence of the judgment lien.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court denied plaintiff's motion, based on a finding "that [defendant's brother] was a purchaser in good faith of [the] property." Plaintiff's counsel asked the court if it would reconsider its ruling if plaintiff offered additional evidence to establish when the lien "was put into place." The court responded:

"Well, I based my ruling * * * on my credibility finding with respect to their *74 testimony about the purchase and sale of the property without knowledge of the judgment lien. And so even with that— even with other evidence I would still make my ruling based on that finding— that credibility finding, and based on that legal conclusion."

Subsequently, the trial court entered a written order in accordance with its ruling, and plaintiff timely appealed.

On appeal, plaintiff argues that the trial court erred in denying its motion to authorize an execution sale of the house because defendant's brother had constructive notice of plaintiff's judgment and was not a "purchaser in good faith" under ORS 18.165(1)(a). Before exploring the merit of plaintiff's arguments, we begin by discussing the history of ORS 18.165.

The Oregon legislature enacted the Deady Code of Civil Procedure in 1862. Section 266 of the code established that circuit court judgments constitute liens on real property owned by judgment debtors, and section 268 established the priority of judgment liens in relation to unrecorded conveyances of property. See Wilson v. Willamette Industries, 280 Or. 45, 47, 569 P.2d 609 (1977) (explaining origin of the statutes). Those provisions remained essentially unchanged for some 140 years.

The two statutes were codified in 1953 as ORS 18.350 and ORS 18.370. Former ORS 18.350(1) (2001), repealed by Or. Laws 2003, ch. 576, § 580, provided that,

"from the time of docketing an original or renewed circuit court judgment as provided in ORS 18.320, such judgment shall be a lien upon all the real property of the judgment debtor within the county where the same is docketed * * *."

(Emphasis added.) In turn, former ORS 18.370 (2001), renumbered as ORS 18.165 (2003), provided that

"[a] conveyance of real property, or any portion thereof, or interest therein, shall be void as against the lien of a judgment, unless such conveyance be recorded at the time of docketing such judgment or the recording of a certified copy of the judgment or a lien record abstract as the case may be."

(Emphasis added.)[1]

In 1926, the Oregon Supreme Court was required in Thompson et al. v. Hendricks et al., 118 Or. 39, 245 P.

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Related

Bedortha v. Sunridge Land Co., Inc.
822 P.2d 694 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1991)
Chaffin v. Solomon
465 P.2d 217 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1970)
Akins v. Vermast
945 P.2d 640 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1997)
Gorzeman v. Thompson
986 P.2d 29 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1999)
Wilson v. Willamette Industries, Inc.
569 P.2d 609 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1977)
Franklin v. Spencer
789 P.2d 643 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1990)
John Latta Associates, Inc. v. Vasilchenko
246 P.3d 72 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2010)
Thompson v. Hendricks
245 P. 724 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1926)
Partlow v. Clark
671 P.2d 103 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1983)
Partlow v. Clark
653 P.2d 568 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1982)
Akins v. Vermast
950 P.2d 907 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1997)

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246 P.3d 72, 240 Or. App. 96, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/john-latta-associates-inc-v-vasilchenko-orctapp-2010.