100 Wash. 260 | Wash. | 1918
This case grows out of the facts detailed in Union Central Life Ins. Co. v. Hawkins, 84 Wash. 605, 147 Pac. 199. Subsequently to the remittitur in that case, appellant commenced this action to establish an equitable lien on the property in the amount of the taxes paid by it in protecting the forged mortgage. The lower court held that the judgment in the Hawkins case was a bar, and denied a recovery. This is the only question before us.
A review of the Hawkins case is therefore necessary to ascertain what was there determined. The complaint in that case alleged the payment of taxes for the years 1907, 1908, and 1909, and prayed for the foreclosure of its equitable lien in the amount so paid. At the trial, evidence of the payment of the taxes was received without objection. At the conclusion of the evidence, the trial judge held that, inasmuch as the mortgage was a forgery, the insurance company was entitled to no relief in that action on account of the payment of the taxes, and any relief that might be granted must be in some other and subsequent action. In so holding, the trial judge was clearly wrong. It has long been the law of this state, announced in numerous cases, that the payment of taxes in good faith in protection of a claim of lien establishes an equitable lien upon the property in the amount so paid. Hemen v. Rinehart, 45 Wash. 1, 87 Pac. 953; Vietzen v. Otis, 46 Wash. 402, 90 Pac. 264; Spokane v. Security Savings Society, 46 Wash. 150, 89 Pac. 466; Childs v. Smith, 51 Wash. 457, 99 Pac. 304, 130 Am. St. 1107; Childs v. Smith, 58 Wash. 148, 107 Pac. 1053.
It was immaterial whether the mortgage was valid or invalid. The only question was, did the insurance company, in good faith, pay these taxes in protecting what it believed to be a valid lien upon the property? Unfortunately for appellant, it did not preserve this