99 Wash. 408 | Wash. | 1918
The plaintiff, Thomas J. Wiggins, claiming to have succeeded, under an execution sale, to the title of the defendant Nancy Shaw to a house and lot in Seattle, seeks the setting aside of a deed of conveyance therefor from the defendant Nancy Shaw to the defendant Mary Beckett, seeking recovery of the possession of the premises and the quieting of title thereto in himself. The defendant Mary Beckett, by her answer and cross-complaint, alleges that she is the owner of the premises as the grantee of Nancy Shaw, and prays that her title thereto be quieted as against the claim of the plaintiff. Nancy Shaw’s only interest in the controversy is as the grantor of Mary Beckett by warranty deed. Trial upon "the merits in the superior court for King county resulted in judgment in favor of Mary Beckett as prayed for by her, quieting her title in the premises as against the claim of the plaintiff, from which he has appealed to this court.
Mary Beckett is the mother of Nancy Shaw. On January 7, 1914, and for several years prior thereto, Nancy Shaw was the owner of the premises in controversy. On that day she conveyed the premises to her mother, Mary Beckett, by warranty deed. It is not shown that Nancy Shaw was then indebted to any one, except a debt secured by a mortgage upon the premises in controversy, and indebtedness to Mary Beckett, her mother, for sums which had been advanced from time to time. The amount of the consideration for the conveyance is not shown with certainty, but that it was a considerable amount seems evident from the testimony, and consisted of indebtedness owing by Nancy Shaw to her mother, Mary Beckett, for moneys advanced on several occasions. The consideration, in any event, was ample to support the conveyance as between themselves.
On June 4, 1914, Thomas J. Wiggins commenced an ac
It is contended in the appellant’s behalf that the conveyance of the premises made by Nancy Shaw to her mother, Mary Beckett, on January 7, 1914, is void as having been made with intent on the part of both Nancy Shaw and Mary Beckett to defraud creditors, and that, therefore, the premises were subject to sale under the execution as the property of Nancy Shaw. It is at once apparent that, in order to successfully maintain this contention, appellant must show that the conveyance of January 7, 1914, was made with intent to defraud creditors of Nancy Shaw who were to become such after the making of the conveyance, since appel
Some contention is made in appellant’s behalf that, prior to the entering of the judgment appealed from, the court had announced its decision and, in effect, rendered a judgment in favor of appellant, and therefore had no authority to render the judgment in favor of Mary Beckett which is here appealed from. The circumstances disclosed by the record upon which appellant relies are somewhat involved. This condition of the record grew out of an attempt on the part of the court to encourage a compromise of the controversy between the parties, which they also seem to have thought possible to bring about. The clerk, on December 11, 1916, some ten days after the conclusion of the trial, made an informal minute entry “that plaintiff in this case have judgment quieting title as prayed.” The trial court thereafter decided that this entry was made by inadvertence and mistake on the part of the clerk and without direction of the court, and it was, for that reason, set aside and expunged from the record. Thereafter the formal judgment here appealed from was prepared and entered. We see nothing in this contention except the claim that the trial court erred in setting aside and expunging from the record this informal minute entry, and thereafter signing and entering a formal judgment quieting title in respondent Mary Beckett. Looking to the record as a whole, we are convinced that the formal judgment, signed by the judge and entered in the journal, which is here appealed from, is the only final disposition of the case ever made by the trial court.
The judgment is affirmed.
Ellis, C. J., Webster, Main, and Fullerton, JJ., concur.