1 Wash. 497 | Wash. | 1889
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This was an action brought by John W. Rauch, the appellee, against E. S. Brown, the appellant, as receiver of the Northwestern Manufacturing & Car Company. The object of the action was to recover the sum of $436 for services claimed to have been rendered to the receiver as such. The plaintiff set forth in his complaint that the Northwestern Manufacturing & Car Company was a corporation duly incorporated under the laws of the State of Minnesota; that it was authorized by its charter to transact business in Washington Territory; that it had complied with the laws of Washington Territory respecting foreign
The general rule was not questioned in argument that before an action can be brought against a receiver leave of
The receiver, as we have seen, is but the representative of the court; and the power to grant leave to bring suit against the receiver belongs, not to the receiver, but to the court which appoints him. The receiver cannot do indirectly what he has not the power to do directly. He has no right to take a step or do an act the result of which would be to defeat the object of his appointment, or em-barass the court in the administration of the trust property. The very object of the rule in question is to enable the court to keep the trust property at all times within its control. This it could not do if the receiver might be sued without its leave, or, perhaps, without its knowledge, in any other court or jurisdiction. On the other hand, no harm can come from the strict observance of this rule. All parties dealing with a receiver are bound to take notice of the limitations of his power; and no one can therefore complain of having been misled by him when he goes beyond his prescribed powers. The leave to prosecute a receiver is a jurisdictional fact, and cannot be waived by any action of the receiver; and this question of jurisdiction can be raised at any stage of the case, either in the district or supreme court. Code Wash. T., § 81. That the leave to pi’osecute an action against a receiver is a jurisdictional fact has been definitely settled, so far as this court is concerned, by the decision of the supreme court of the United States in the recent case of Barton v. Barbour, 104 U. S. 126. A different rule is followed by the courts of some of the states of the Union; but, as this court is bound by the decisions of the supreme court of the United States, a discussion of cases holding a different doctrine would serve no useful purpose.