72 Wash. 532 | Wash. | 1913
Appeal from a judgment establishing as a proper claim against the estate of a deceased wife, a judgment obtained in an action against the husband alone upon a community indebtedness. The respondent first brought an action against the husband upon two promissory notes, without making the wife a party. Pending this action, the wife died. The action proceeded to judgment. This judgment is admitted to be a community judgment. Respondent then filed the judgment as a claim against the community in the estate of the deceased wife. It was rejected, and this suit was brought thereon, resulting in the judgment appealed from.
These facts support the judgment so clearly that it is difficult to find anything to discuss without again opening up the long-ago settled law of this state. ■ When the wife died, the entire community estate was subject to administration, and all community debts were proper claims against that estate. The judgment against the husband, being a community judgment, was properly filed as a claim against the community estate, such a judgment being enforceable out of the separate property of the husband or the community property. Oregon Imp. Co. v. Sagmeister, 4 Wash. 710, 30 Pac. 1058, 19 L. R. A. 233; Curry v. Catlin, 9 Wash. 495, 37 Pac. 678, 39 Pac. 101; McDonough v. Craig, 10 Wash. 239, 38 Pac. 1034; Ryan v. Fergusson, 3 Wash. 356, 28 Pac. 910; In re Hill’s Estate, 6 Wash. 285, 33 Pac. 585. That this is the law is admitted by appellant, his contention being that, under Rem. & Bal. Code, § 1481, providing that:
“If any action be pending against the testator or intestate at the time of his death, the plaintiff shall, in like manner, present his claim to the executor or administrator for allowance or rejection, authenticated as in other cases; and no recovery shall be had in the action, unless proof be made of the presentment;”
the wife having died during the pendency of the first action, and by her death subjected the entire community estate to
Neither do we think that the wife is within the description of the statute. No action was pending against her at the time of her death. There was no attempt to subject her separate property to any claim of respondent. All that was sought in that first action was to obtain a judgment against the husband, which judgment is, not only presumptively but admittedly, a claim against the community estate. As such it is properly enforceable against the community estate, and the judgment so holding is affirmed'.
Crow, C. J., Ellis, Fullerton, and Main, JJ., concur.