Rowe v. Silbaugh

164 P. 923, 96 Wash. 138, 1917 Wash. LEXIS 903
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedMay 5, 1917
DocketNo. 13816
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 164 P. 923 (Rowe v. Silbaugh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rowe v. Silbaugh, 164 P. 923, 96 Wash. 138, 1917 Wash. LEXIS 903 (Wash. 1917).

Opinion

Webster, J.

— This is an appeal from an order and judgment sustaining a demurrer to the amended complaint and dismissing an action to quiet title to certain lands in Pacific county, by vacating and setting aside a judgment of the superior court of King county and cancelling a sheriff’s deed made pursuant thereto. Plaintiff alleged that, on or about February 7, 1914, she and the defendant Jackson Silbaugh entered into a written contract for the exchange of certain [139]*139real properties; that, at the time plaintiff signed the contract, Silbaugh pretended to read its contents to her, but fraudulently failed to read a clause providing for the forfeiture of $500 as liquidated damages by the party in default in the event the contract should not be carried out; that, upon discovering the fraudulent manner in which her signature to the writing had been procured, plaintiff accused Silbaugh of the fraud, and he thereupon wrote on her copy of the contract an addendum to the effect that, if she should be unable to obtain the sum of $1,000 from one Devenish, or should be unable to realize that amount upon the obligation due her from him, the forfeiture clause would be waived; that she thereafter informed Silbaugh that she was unable to secure money on the Devenish note, and that nothing further was done toward consummating the exchange; that, on June 23, 1914, Silbaugh commenced an action against her in the superior court of King county, based upon the forfeiture clause in the original contract, and such proceedings were had that, on October 22, 1914, he obtained a default judgment against her in the sum of $500 and costs; that, on July 25, 1914, Silbaugh sued out a writ of attachment which, on August 7, 1914, was levied upon her property in Pacific county, the title to which she is now seeking to have quieted; that the summons in the action was published in the Seattle Municipal News, commencing August 15, 1914, and qnding on September 26,1914; that, on December 5, 1915, pursuant to an execution issued out of the superior court of King county, the sheriff of Pacific county sold the property in question for the purpose of satisfying the judgment; that at said sale Rosetta Silbaugh, the wife of Jackson Silbaugh, became the purchaser of the property, and on December 16, 1915, the sheriff of Pacific county executed a deed conveying the property to her; that, on January 22, 1916, the deed was lodged for record in the office of the auditor of Pacific county; that at no time during the pendency of the action did plaintiff have any knowledge thereof, and that her first informa[140]*140tion concerning it was obtained after the deed to Rosetta Silbaugh had been filed for record; that, during the month of August, 1914, the home and residence of plaintiff was upon the land sold under the execution; that the affidavit for publication of summons, sworn to by Silbaugh and filed in the court on August 6, 1914, stated: “The defendant is a nonresident of the state of Washington and cannot be found therein although diligent search has been made;” that this statement was false and untrue, and known to be such by Silbaugh at the time the affidavit was made; that he, in fact, knew the residence and postoffice address of plaintiff, but did not mail a copy of the summons and complaint to her known residence and postoffice address; that the obtaining of the judgment was a fraud upon the superior court of King county and upon the plaintiff, and that the judgment and the deed pursuant to it constitute a cloud upon the title of the plaintiff to the property described in the amended complaint.

Plaintiff prayed that the judgment be vacated, the deed be cancelled, and that title to the property be quieted in her.

The defendant interposed a general demurrer upon the grounds, among others, that the amended complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, and that the court was without jurisdiction to hear and determine the cause. The demurrer was sustained. Plaintiff declined to plead further, and the action was dismissed. From this judgment, plaintiff appeals.

As we read the amended complaint, it is susceptible of two constructions; first, as an action to quiet title and, incidental thereto, to vacate the judgment and cancel the deed; and second, as an action in equity to vacate and set aside a judgment procured by fraud, brought after the expiration of one year from the entry of judgment but withip three years after the discovery of the fraud by which it was obtained. We shall, therefore, consider it in each of its aspects.

[141]*141If it be considered an action to quiet title, the demurrer was properly sustained upon the ground that the amended complaint did not state sufficient facts. An examination of the pleading discloses that the record presented for the consideration of the King county superior court clothed it with apparent jurisdiction to entertain the action, and the judgment entered in the cause is fair and valid on its face. Its invalidity can only be exposed by evidence de hors the record, the defect complained of being that the affidavit of nonresidence upon which the publication of summons was based was false and fraudulent. The judgment is not absolutely void, but is subject only to be avoided in an appropriate action for that purpose.

“Where it appears on the face of the record that no service has been made on the defendant, and the court must know, from a bare inspection thereof, that the judgment is void for want of jurisdiction over the person of the defendant, it will set aside the judgment, on the motion of the defendant or of any one injuriously affected by it; but, when the judgment is valid on its face, it is not thus subject to attack. To set aside a judgment for matters de hors the record, it must be attacked by some one of the statutory'methods for the vacation of judgments, and within the time limited by statute, or by a suit setting up some equitable ground for its vacation.” Scott v. Hanford, 37 Wash. 5, 79 Pac. 481.

See, also, State ex rel. Pacific Loan & Inv. Co. v. Superior Court, 84 Wash. 392, 146 Pac. 834; Doble v. State, 95 Wash. 62, 163 Pac. 37; Benjamin v. Ernst, 83 Wash. 59, 145 Pac. 79; Peyton v. Peyton, 28 Wash. 278, 68 Pac. 757; 1 Freeman, Judgments, §§ 132 and 334.

In Magee v. Big Bend Land Co., 51 Wash. 406, 99 Pac. 16, this court held that an action to quiet title and recover possession of lands sold at an administrator’s sale, alleged to> have been made without jurisdiction, is a collateral attack upon the probate proceeding. In Peyton v. Peyton, supra, it was held that, if an action or proceeding has an independent purpose and contemplates some other relief or result than [142]*142that of vacating and setting aside the judgment, although the overturning of the judgment may be important and even necessary to its success, the attack upon the judgment is collateral. See, also, Kalb v. German Sav. & Loan Soc., 25 Wash. 349, 65 Pac. 559, 87 Am. St. 757; 1 Black, Judgments, § 252.

Inasmuch as the judgment was not void and, therefore, not open to collateral attack — and an action to quiet title must be treated as such an attack — the amended complaint fails to state a cause of action. If, on the other hand, the action is to be treated as one in equity to vacate a judgment on the ground of fraud, the superior court of Pacific county was without jurisdiction to entertain it. In Case Threshing Machine Co. v. Sires, 21 Wash. 321, 58 Pac.

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Bluebook (online)
164 P. 923, 96 Wash. 138, 1917 Wash. LEXIS 903, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rowe-v-silbaugh-wash-1917.