In August, 1941, a demurrer to the complaint was overruled and in October, 1941, defendant answered. In February, 1942, an order was obtained advancing the case for trial because of the prospective military service of two plaintiffs. On March 5, 1942, a conference was had between the parties and their attorneys and a settlement dictated into the record. This was filed on November 16th. The stipulation provided that payment of $1,000 shall operate as a full and complete satisfaction of all money claims and demands of individual plaintiffs, such payments to be made in instalments, $200 on April 1, 1942, $100 on the first of each month thereafter, with a three-day grace period. The stipulation provided that on affidavit as to any default in payment, plaintiffs might have judgment against defendants for $6,203, the amount demanded in the complaint. The stipulation also provided for entry forthwith of an injunction requiring defendants' compliance with the contract of 1937. At the same time, defendants signed a contract with the union substituting a definite one-year term and omitting the phrase "and thereafter until a new contract reached and signed." On March 31, 1942, the trial court made and entered an order on the *Page 393 stipulation and findings of fact and conclusions of law in support of the injunction. The judgment of injunction was entered on April 6th. On April 3d, Smith informed plaintiffs' attorney that he was unable to raise the $200 due April 4th and asked him to accept $100 and to defer the other $100 until later. Plaintiffs' attorney disavowed authority to waive the terms of the stipulation, but promised that he would let Smith know by the 4th of April. On April 4th Smith claims to have been at the office of plaintiffs' attorney and that the office was closed. According to plaintiffs' attorney he declined to waive or stipulate to anything or to do more than report the matter to his clients. On April 7th Smith presented a $200 check to plaintiffs' attorney which bore an indorsement waiving default rights of plaintiffs and plaintiffs' attorney refused the check. On April 13th, under the stipulation, an order was entered for a money judgment against defendants in the aggregate sum of $6,203. There was some suggestion on the part of the trial court at this time that the matter might be adjusted but nothing came of that. On April 17th, judgment was entered for the full amount of the demand of complaint, execution issued and supplementary proceedings started. Service of notice of entry of judgment was made on April 20th. On July 13th the defendants moved to set aside the judgment on the ground that it was unconscionable and devoid of equity and offering payment of $500 arrearages under the stipulation. Plaintiffs' counteraffidavit set up that more than sixty days had expired since notice of entry of judgment, and that during February, 1942, when defendants were resisting plaintiffs' motion to have the matter set for trial, Smith had made an assignment of his property to his wife without any consideration. On August 24th, a decision was rendered denying defendants relief from the judgment, the court referring to and evidently relying at least in part upon the conveyance by Smith to his wife of all his property. The court also asserted that Smith's willingness to pay $1,000 in settlement was a substantial *Page 394 admission that he had tried to avoid his obligations under the contract. This order was formally entered on September 16th and is one of the orders appealed from.
On November 5th, an order to show cause was brought on behalf of defendants before the trial court to obtain equitable relief from the orders at the foot of the judgment. The various matters heretofore referred to were set up and an explanation given as to the purpose of the transfers to Smith's wife. It was alleged that the enforcement of the judgment would result in enforcing a penalty and would be unconscionable and inequitable and petitioner offered to pay $1,000 and the $50 penalty indicated by the trial court, together with interest and plaintiffs' disbursements. This motion was denied, the court holding that $6,203 judgment was not a penalty or forfeiture but liquidated damages and that the situation justifies the inference that defendant fraudulently attempted to defeat plaintiffs' claims. This order was entered on November 24th. On December 14, 1942, this appeal was taken. The orders appealed from were entered on September 16, 1942, and November 24, 1942.
The principal contention of appellants is that the stipulation to settle for $1,000, but if this sum were not paid, judgment to be entered for $6,203, is a contract for a penalty and unenforceable; that it makes no difference that this contract was a stipulation in an action or that the contract was cast in alternative form. In this connection see Berrinkottv. Traphagen,
The suggestion that by asking for relief at the foot of the judgment in the application of November 5th the jurisdiction of the trial court was somehow restored is wholly without merit. So far as the judgment for $6,203 is concerned, this is an ordinary judgment at law in which the court had no control of the judgment other than that accorded it by statute. The cases of Levin v. Grant,
"As indicated above, the decisions above cited under the Kansas statute are based upon the proposition that the judgments involved were final judgments of the court, — judgments that absolutely ended the litigation between the parties. A judgment of strict foreclosure of a land contract does not produce absolute finality. In such judgments, a subsequent order barring the defendant's interest and claims for want of redemption *Page 397 is essential in order to declare and quiet title in the plaintiff, and a writ for removing the defendant from the premises is contemplated in case it becomes necessary. Proceedings at the foot of the judgment are a matter of course in these cases and the litigation is not at an end until they are taken. It would seem, a priori, that until the final order contemplated, an order making the judgment absolute, has been entered, anything discretionary might properly be done by the court that has material bearing upon the equities of the parties respecting the order finally ending the litigation between them."
This rule is plainly inapplicable here for the reasons already indicated.
By the Court. — The order of September 16, 1942, is affirmed. The appeal from the order of November 24, 1942, is dismissed.
