Title: Nelson v. Hein
Citation: 183 Kan. 430, 327 P.2d 1028
Docket Number: 41,050
State: Kansas
Issuer: Kansas Supreme Court
Date: July 7, 1958

183 Kan. 430 (1958)
327 P.2d 1028
PAULINE A. NELSON, Guardian of RUBY PATTERSON, an Incompetent Person, Appellant,
v.
JOHN A. HEIN, Appellee.
No. 41,050

Supreme Court of Kansas.
Opinion filed July 7, 1958.
Walter J. Kennedy, of El Dorado, argued the cause, and W.H. Coutts, Jr. and W.H. Coutts, III, of El Dorado, were with him on the briefs for appellant.
D.M. Ward, of Peabody, argued the cause and was on the briefs for appellee.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
FATZER, J.:
On February 18, 1924, Ruby Patterson was adjudged incompetent by the probate court of Butler County and was ordered confined to the State Hospital at Osawatomie for care and treatment. She is still incompetent, but at the present time is an out-patient of the hospital.
*431 On August 20, 1942, Doris Patterson, a daughter of the incompetent, was appointed guarding of her estate. As guardian, Doris Patterson received $1,032.32 in cash and lots 134 and 135 in Liberty Park Addition to the City of El Dorado as property belonging to the incompetent person.
In the spring of 1944 Butler County commenced a tax foreclosure proceeding pursuant to G.S. 1941 Supp. 79-2801, et seq., against certain tracts, lots and parcels of real estate in that county, including the two lots above described. The pleadings listed Doris Patterson, guardian of the estate of Ruby Patterson, as a defendant. Personal service of summons was had upon the incompetent in the state hospital, and upon the guardian in Butler County. On June 17, 1944, Doris Patterson married the defendant John A. Hein. She did not inform the district court of the change in her name.
On June 27, 1944, the district court rendered a judgment foreclosing the tax liens on the two lots in question and ordered the property sold to satisfy the judgment. On August 16, 1944, pursuant to the order of sale, the two lots were sold to John and Doris Hein. On August 23, 1944, the district court confirmed the sale and ordered a sheriff's deed executed and delivered to John and Doris Hein. The district court was not advised that it was in fact confirming the sale of property of an incompetent person to her guardian and to the guardian's spouse.
Doris Patterson Hein continued to act as guardian until her death on December 26, 1954.
On February 9, 1957, Pauline A. Nelson, the plaintiff in this action and a sister of Doris Patterson Hein, deceased, was appointed guardian of the estate of the incompetent person.
On August 15, 1957, over two and a half years following her appointment, and lacking one day of thirteen years following the sale of the two lots, Pauline A. Nelson commenced this action; the petition being in three causes. The first was to quiet title to the real property; the second was in ejectment to recover immediate possession thereof, and the third was for an accounting of rents and profits from August 23, 1944, to August 15, 1957. The defendant's demurrer on the ground that the petition did not state facts sufficient to constitute any of the causes of action and that a statute of limitations applied, was sustained. Plaintiff has appealed and specifies as error the district court's ruling on the demurrer.
Without summarizing the allegations of the petition it may be *432 stated that the first cause of action was a collateral attack upon the jurisdiction of the district court to render the tax foreclosure judgment, and sought to vacate and set aside the sale of the real property on August 16, 1944, and the sheriff's deed of August 23, 1944. In order that plaintiff maintain her second and third causes of action it is necessary that she allege facts sufficient, which, if proved, would permit the court to enter its order quieting title under the first cause of action. It was not alleged that constructive trust arose as a result of the purchase of the property by the fiduciary, Doris Hein, and her surviving husband, thus imposing upon him an equitable duty to convey the property to the plaintiff by reason of its wrongful acquisition and retention. Rather, plaintiff framed her petition so that it alleged a defect of some thirteen years standing in the tax foreclosure proceedings as a ground for quieting title.
Our decisions do not permit such a collateral attack. In Shell Oil Co. v. Board of County Comm'rs, 171 Kan. 159, 231 P.2d 220, it was said:
This case was reaffirmed in Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Moore, 179 Kan. 482, 297 P.2d 183, where it was held:
Any jurisdictional defect implicit in the judgment and deed of tax foreclosure resulting from Doris Patterson's marriage to the defendant, has long since ceased to be the occasion for a collateral attack on the judgment, sale, and sheriff's deed of August 23, 1944.
In accordance with the judgment of the district court plaintiff may further plead, but the record presented requires an affirmance of the order sustaining the demurrer to the petition.
The judgment is affirmed.