Cougill v. Farmers' Insurance
Cougill v. Farmers' Insurance
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
This is an appeal from a judgment of the circuit court for Linn County in favor of the plaintiff, rendered in an action on a judgment of a sister state. The only question argued or presented on this appeal, and which has been here raised for the first time in the case, is as to the sufficiency of the complaint. It alleges, in substance, that on the eleventh day of December, eighteen hundred and ninety, in an action then pending in the superior court of Jefferson County, Washington, the plaintiff herein recovered a judgment against the defendant for the sum of fourteen hundred and eighty-one dollars and eighty cents, together with her costs and disbursements, taxed at thirty-six dollars and eighty-five cents; that no part, thereof has ever been paid, and that the same remains in force and effect, not satisfied, reversed, or otherwise
It is admitted by counsel for defendant that the facts set forth in the complaint would have constituted a cause of action if they had been confined to the existence of the judgment and that it remained in full force and effect. But his contention is that the plaintiff having averred that such judgment had been set aside and vacated by the court in which it was rendered, and that the cause had been taken to the supreme court by the plaintiff on a writ of certiorari, it must he presumed, in the absence of any allegation to the contrary, that the cause is still in the supreme court, and that inasmuch as that the court did not affirm the judgment so vacated, or render a judgment in plaintiff’s favor, but simply reversed the order of the lower court, (State v. Sachs, 3 Wash. 391, 29 Pac. 446,) it therefore does not appear that there is any judgment upon which this action can be maintained. Under the system of procedure in the state of Washington, as we understand it, the supreme court has original jurisdiction to issue a writ of certiorari in a
It was argued by plaintiff’s counsel that the complaint states two causes of action—one upon a judgment of the superior court, and the other on a judgment of the supreme court for'costs; and, having alleged that the judgment of the superior court still remains in full force and effect, and has not been reversed or annulled, it states a cause of action on that judgment, and the question as to whether a remitter from the supreme court has ever issued is solely a question of proof. This would probably be true if the complaint had not also averred that the judgment had been vacated and set aside by the court in which it was rendered, and hence it shows on its face that there is no judgment of that court, unless the effect of the action of the supreme court in reversing the order setting it aside is to revive the judgment without a remitter, which we do not understand to be the law.
Again it is claimed that only the order purporting to
Reversed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- COUGILL v. FARMERS' INSURANCE CO.
- Status
- Published