Hope v. Bashor
Hope v. Bashor
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court , was delivered by
On April 30, 1915, A. B. Hope filed a petition for the foreclosure of a real-estate mortgage executed by Lizzie J. Bashor and J. C. Bashor, her husband. On the 3d of May following the sheriff made return, of the summons, show
The only evidence introduced was the oral testimony of Basil Bashor, the. defendant’s fifteen-year-old son, and Mrs. Bashor. The son testified that when the sheriff came with the summons he was starting a fire in a stove, preparatory to •getting supper, in a house in which the family had resided until two weeks previously, and in which he-and his father were “batching” all the time, while they were putting in a crop; that'at this time all the furniture had been moved to another place, five miles away, where his mother was, with four other children, excepting a bed in which he and his father slept, a cook stove, a table and dishes to eat out of; that the sheriff handed him a copy of the summons and told him to give it to his mother when she came home; that he told the sheriff that they had moved, and that his mother was at the other place; that he never gave the copy of the summons to his mother, because he didn’t think it was anything of any importance. The mother testified that the family had moved out of the house referred to, on the 14th of April; that in September she first learned of the suit having been brought, by reading a letter which had been written to her husband.
2. The matter, however, is affected by another, consideration. In this state an injunction will not be granted against a judgment, merely because it is void for want of a legal service of summons, without a showing that a claim is made in good faith that it is unjust as well as based upon an insufficient notice. (True v. Mendenhall, 67 Kan. 497, 73 Pac. 67; O’Neil v. Eppler, 90 Kan. 314, 133 Pac. 705.) And the same, or a more rigorous, requirement is exacted elsewhere, as a condition to such relief. (23 Cyc. 997; Note, 14 L. R. A., n. s., 213.) The reasons for refusing to enjoin a. judgment without a showing that its justice is at least doubtful apply with equal force where its vacation is sought on the same ground by motion. An independent action brought to set aside a judgment is regarded in this state as a direct proceeding for the purpose. ' (McNeill v. Edie, Sheriff, &c., 24 Kan. 108, 110.) Elsewhere it is sometimes classified as a direct, and sometimes as a collateral attack (23 Cyc. 1065), and the same is true of a motion made to set aside a judgment after the expiration of the term at which it was rendered (Note, 23 Am. St. Rep. 105, 106). That, however, is a mere matter of phraseology. The separate action, because it tenders a specific issue, defined by formal pleadings, to be determined upon a full and orderly
In Hanson v. Wolcott, 19 Kan. 207, it was said that a judgment void for want of service- may be set aside on motion at any time, without advising the court of the existence of a valid defense. And the usual rule is that no defense need be shown in such a case. (Note, 18 L. R. A., n. s., 405.) What was really decided in the Kansas, case referred to, however, was the inapplicability to an attack on a void judgment of the
The judgment is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- A. B. Hope v. Lizzie J. Bashor
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- SYLLABUS BY THE COURT. 1. Judgment — Motion to Set Aside — Service of Summons — Evidence. The evidence held not to require the reversal of a finding that the place at which the sheriff left a copy of a summons was the residence of the defendant sought to be served. 2. Same — Summons—“Usual Place of Residence.” No error was committed in refusing to set aside a judgment in an action for the foreclosure of a real-estate mortgage, upon a motion made by one of the mortgagors after the sale of the property, on the ground that the return of the sheriff showing a service upon her by leaving a copy of the summons at her usual place of residence was false, because she had acquired another domicile some two weeks previously, where her evidence showed that her husband and a son, with whom the copy was left, were still working, eating and sleeping at such place, and no showing was made of any claim of the existence of a meritorious defense or partial defense to the action.