Court Opinion

ID: 9844910
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:11:35.683751+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:47.045204
License: Public Domain

SHEPARD, Justice
(dissenting).
The ultimate decision reached by the majority opinion in this case compels my dissent. The relatively simple question presented in this case is whether a litigant who voluntarily pays and satisfies a judgment may thereafter have that judgment set aside and vacated. The majority holds in the affirmative and I disagree.
The generally accepted test for determining whether payment or compliance with a judgment cuts off the defeated party’s right to appeal or initiate other proceedings to attack the judgment is whether the performance is voluntary or involuntary. 39 A.L.R.2d 153-191, §§ 3.(b), 4(a). There is substantial agreement in this and other jurisdictions that payment or satisfaction of a judgment following execution is not voluntary and does not bar the granting of relief from the judgment. See Falls Creek Timber Co. v. Day, 39 Idaho 495, 228 P. 313 (1924); Power County v. Evans Bros. Land & Livestock Co., 43 Idaho 158, 252 P. 182 (1926); Backman v. Douglas, 46 Idaho 671, 270 P. 618 (1928); 39 A.L.R.2d 166-168, § 6. The rationale for the rule appears to be that payment made under the threat of imminent levy and sale is under duress and therefore regarded as coerced. However, where as in the instant action, compliance with and satisfaction of the judgment is in the absence of execution, it is deemed voluntary compliance. There is, however, a split of authority upon that question. See Reitano v. Yankwich, 38 Cal.2d 1, 237 P.2d 6, 39 A.L.R.2d 191 (1951); Ryan v. Engelke, 285 S.W.2d 6 (Mo.App.1955); Beacon Home Equipment Co. v. Paulsen, 343 Ill.App. 468, 99 N.E.2d 586 (1951); Webb Const. Co. v. Crane Co., 52 Ariz. 299, 80 P.2d 698 (1938). See also, Tong v. Miller, 231 Mich. 356, 204 N.W. 108 (1925); Griffis v. Harmon & Crane, 108 So.2d 822 (La.App.1959); Bates v. Nichols, 223 Iowa 878, 274 N.W. 32 (1937). The terms release, acquiescence, estoppel, waiver and mootness have variously been applied to the consequences of voluntary payment. See Webb Const. Co. v. Crane Co., supra; Chaney v. Baker, 302 Ill. 481, 135 N.E. 14 (1922); Scott v. Scott, 218 La. 211, 48 So.2d 899 (1950); Reserve Life Ins. Co. v. Frankfather, 123 Colo. 77, 225 P.2d 1035 (1950).
The action of the lower court coupled with the majority opinion’s affirmance on that portion of the case demonstrate that the appellant at the time of payment and satisfaction of judgment possessed a sound basis for otherwise attacking the default judgment. See I.R.C.P. 60(b); Johnson v. McIntyre, 80 Idaho 135, 326 P.2d 989 (1958); Nielson v. Garrett, 55 Idaho 240, 43 P.2d 380 (1935); Davis v. Rathbun, 79 Idaho 482, 321 P.2d 609 (1958).
Despite this available course of action, appellant here chose to first pay and satisfy the judgment and then seek to set it aside. I would conclude that such conduct was voluntary and waived any subsequent relief. Griffis v. Harmon & Crane, supra; Muckey v. Baehr, 158 Kan. 19, 145 P.2d 164 (1944). The majority herein and, of course, the appellant assert that appellant found it to his advantage to satisfy the judgment and thereby discharge the judgment lien which constituted a cloud on the title to real property which he then desired to sell. I cannot agree that payment under such circumstances constituted the compulsion of legal process or such coercion and duress which, as a matter of law should take this case out of the rule that volun*507tary payment of a judgment prevents later attack thereon.
Likewise, I cannot agree with the majority opinion that I.C. § 10-1115 creates some hybrid type of statutory animal which permits a defeated party to voluntarily pay and satisfy a judgment and receive the benefits thereof and simultaneously or thereafter seek to attack that judgment. I find nothing in the language of the statute indicating that it was intended to be more than a mere clarification and codification of the statutes that it replaced and merely note that the majority opinion cites no authority or rationale for its contrary conclusion.
DONALDSON, J., concurs.