Court Opinion

ID: 9602835
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:00:37.662711+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:45:44.503946
License: Public Domain

LATOURETTE, C. J.,
specially concurring.
The principal question involved on the appeal is the validity of the decree of divorce awarding defendant the real property involved.
It is a general rule that where a court has jurisdic*304tioii of the subject matter and of the parties its judgment cannot be collaterally attacked. The reason for this rule is well stated in 31 Am Jur 177, Judgments, §577:
‘ ‘ The observance of the general rule denying the right collaterally to attack a judgment is required by a due regard for the repute of the courts and for the solemnity of judicial proceedings. The rule has been adopted as the result of weighing, on the one hand, the desire of the courts to avoid results which effect positive injustice to individuals, and on the other hand, considerations affecting public policy and convenience, especially in regard to the maintenance of the integrity of property rights acquired on the faith of judicial proceedings. In other words, the rule is based upon public interest in the final adjudication of controversies, or upon the conclusiveness which the law extends to judgments. The fact that a party has an opportunity for redress in a direct proceeding is also sometimes stated as an additional reason for the application of the rule.”
In 49 CJS 815, Judgments, § 428, we find:
“When jurisdiction has once attached, the court has a right to decide every question arising in the case, and errors of judgment or irregularities, however gross, which do not render the judgment absolutely void, are not available on collateral attack, and, moreover, this rule as to the nonavailability on collateral attack has been held to be applicable even where such errors or irregularities appear on the face of the record. This rule applies to the orders and judgments of probate courts. A judgment cannot be collaterally impeached merely because it was based on a mistake of fact or a mistake of law.”
The above rule is adhered to in Shaveland v. Shaveland, 112 Or 173, 178, 228 P 1090; Travelers Ins. Co. v. *305Staiger, 157 Or 143, 148, 69 P2d 1069; and Ulrich v. Lincoln Realty Co., 175 Or 296, 304, 153 P2d 255.
See Annotation, 111 ALR 1200; Mumper v. Matthes, 186 Or 357, 206 P2d 82.
In the ease at bar the trial court in the divorce suit had jurisdiction of the parties and of the subject matter. The cause of suit fell within a class over which the court could rightfully exercise jurisdiction. The court had jurisdiction to award defendant a divorce and to award to her the real property in question. § 9-912, OCLA, as amended by Oregon Laws 1947, ch 557. Her answer alleged that her husband was possessed of real property in Jackson county, Oregon, and was attempting to dispose of the same. The prayer of her answer, inter alia, called for general relief. At the trial the defendant testified that her husband owned the real property specifically described and the decree of the court corresponded therewith. Whether or not her pleading was amended, it seems to me, is immaterial at this stage of the proceedings.
It is asserted that since the complaint did not specifically describe the real property the same was insufficient, which would not warrant the entering of the decree. We have held in several instances that failure of the complaint to specifically describe the real property renders void the judgment based thereon. These cases must be distinguished from the instant case because the questions there considered were raised in direct proceedings rather than collaterally.
In Altman v. School District, 35 Or 85, 56 P 291, and Horn v. United States Mining Co., 47 Or 124, 81 P 1009, we held that the sufficiency of the complaint cannot be collaterally attacked. Of course this would not be true if the defect were a jurisdictional defect.
*306To the same effect is 1 Freeman on Judgments, 5th ed, 761, where the following language is employed.
“In a previous section it was observed that pleadings bear a direct relation to jurisdiction. They present the controversy to the court and empower it to proceed in the cause. Regarded in that light, their office is a jurisdictional one and it is through them and by virtue of them that the court is put in control of the subject matter over which its general powers extend under the law. The parties are brought before the court by appropriate process, the subject matter is presented by some form of petition, bill, complaint, declaration or other application. It is apparent, then, that if the pleading satisfies this requirement and discloses a subject matter within a class over which the court’s powers extend, it will suffice when made the basis of a collateral objection, irrespective of the completeness or quality of the allegations or their adequacy to justify the relief sought, or of any defects, irregularities or imperfections of form or substance. It is sufficient that the allegations challenge a judicial inquiry. For jurisdiction does not depend upon the sufficiency or fullness of the statement of the cause of action pleaded, nor is it of any importance collaterally whether the pleading does or does not state a cause of action, providing it sets forth a case within the court’s powers. If a cause is pleaded belonging to a general class over which the court’s authority extends, then jurisdiction attaches and the court has the power to determine whether the pleading is good or bad, and to decide upon its sufficiency as a statement of a cause of action. As in case of the power to decide any other legal proposition, jurisdiction does not depend upon the correctness of such decision, for though erroneous it is binding until corrected in some direct proceeding, and this notwithstanding the judgment is taken by default or emanates from the inferior tribunal, as, for instance, a justice’s court.”
*307In arriving at a proper solution of this matter care must be taken in considering the cases to distinguish between collateral and direct attacks. Oftentimes, in a direct attack the courts have loosely and inadvertently used the words “void,” “without authority,” or “invalid” when the word “voidable” would have been more appropriate.
The cases cited in the dissenting opinion are distinguishable from the case at bar in that in the cases enumerated where a defective description in the complaint was voided, direct attacks on the decrees were employed. Of course, where a jurisdictional defective description is used, such as in the sale of property in an estate where the statute requires a description in the petition, the decree may be attacked collaterally.