Court Opinion

ID: 9540453
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:16:12.54638+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:57:49.072830
License: Public Domain

Schwellenbach, J.
(dissenting) — I cannot agree that the statement of the majority that “Counsel for respondent in his brief and by a statement made during argument in this court admitted that the final decree of distribution has been entered,” is sufficient to warrant our finding such statement to be a fact. The matter came before the trial court upon a demurrer to the complaint. The complaint did not allege that the decree of distribution had been entered — it was silent on that question. A bill of particulars stated that the will was admitted to probate August 17, 1946. The complaint, as amended by the bill of particulars, contained all that was before the trial court when it ruled on the demurrer to the complaint. We are simply reviewing the action of the trial court in sustaining the demurrer. We cannot speculate as to what the facts might be. We are limited for the purpose of reviewing the order of the trial court to the pleadings as they actually existed. We cannot read into the complaint, nor infer from it, a fact not alleged.
If the decree of distribution has not been entered (and we cannot find from the complaint that it has), this action is premature. Under such circumstances, the remedy of a pre-termitted heir is not to commence an independent action against an heir or heirs, but to file a petition in the probate proceeding, seeking a proportionate share in the distribution thereof. See In re Barker’s Estate, 5 Wash. 390, 31 Pac. 976; Van Brocklin v. Wood, 38 Wash. 384, 80 Pac. 530; In re Hos-cheid’s Estate, 78 Wash. 309, 139 Pac. 61.
*292■ Appellant’s complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action for the relief sought, to wit, to recover, in an independent action against respondent, the value of a one-half interest in the estate of Gottlop Schwank, deceased. The trial court therefore properly sustained the demurrer thereto.
Hill, J., concurs with Schwellenbach, J.