Opinion ID: 2600418
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Is Indoor Billboard's claim barred by the voluntary payment doctrine?

Text: ¶ 61 As an affirmative defense to Indoor Billboard's CPA claim, Integra relies on the voluntary payment doctrine set out in a 1940 case that stated, `money voluntarily paid under a claim of right to the payment, and with full knowledge of the facts by the person making the payment, cannot be recovered back on the ground that the claim was illegal, or that there was no liability to pay in the first instance.' Speckert v. Bunker Hill Ariz. Mining Co., 6 Wash.2d 39, 52, 106 P.2d 602 (1940) (quoting 21 Ruling Case Law 141-42 (1918)). But there is an exception. The general rule that a voluntary payment cannot be recovered back has no application where the payment was induced by fraud on the part of the payee, for, subject to the general rules as to what constitutes fraud, it is a well settled rule that, where a payment of money which the payee ought not to retain is induced by fraud and deceit, it may be recovered back by the payor, and if the fraud is the inducement for the payment, the rule applies although it is not the sole producing cause. Id. at 53, 106 P.2d 602 (quoting 48 C.J. Payment § 311, at 753-54 (1929)). ¶ 62 Integra argues that Indoor Billboard paid Integra's invoice knowing that Integra's PICC was charged to all customers, regardless of whether they purchased interexchange service from Integra and knowing that the FCC did not set the amount of Integra's PICC. Integra further notes that Shulevitz conducted his own independent investigation into Integra's surcharge before agreeing to purchase Integra's services or pay Integra's invoices. Integra argues that because Indoor Billboard purchased Integra's services and paid the invoice knowingly, Indoor Billboard is barred under the voluntary payment doctrine from asserting a CPA claim. ¶ 63 Indoor Billboard questions whether an affirmative defense that is ordinarily asserted only in a contract context can be applied to a CPA claim at all. Nevertheless, it claims that even if we could apply the doctrine in the context of a CPA claim, it cannot be applied here because there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Shulevitz had ` full knowledge of all the facts, ' as required by the doctrine. Br. of Appellant at 48 (quoting Speckert, 6 Wash.2d at 52, 106 P.2d 602). It argues adjudication of the voluntary payment doctrine is inappropriate on summary judgment. ¶ 64 Indoor Billboard is correct that Washington courts have generally applied the voluntary payment doctrine only in the contract context. See, e.g., Hawkinson v. Conniff, 53 Wash.2d 454, 459-60, 334 P.2d 540 (1959); Shields v. Schorno, 51 Wash.2d 737, 739, 321 P.2d 905 (1958); Speckert, 6 Wash.2d at 40, 106 P.2d 602; Maxwell v. Provident Mut. Life Ins. Co. of Phila., 180 Wash. 560, 575-76, 41 P.2d 147 (1935); Mut. Sales Agency, Inc. v. Hari, 145 Wash. 236, 240-41, 259 P. 712 (1927). One Washington case from the Court of Appeals considered applying the doctrine in a CPA context, although it did not reach the issue because it decided the defendant did not engage in an unfair or deceptive practice. Robinson, 106 Wash.App. at 122, 22 P.3d 818. ¶ 65 We agree with Indoor Billboard that the voluntary payment doctrine is inappropriate as an affirmative defense in the CPA context, as a matter of law, because we construe the CPA liberally in favor of plaintiffs.