Court Opinion

ID: 9610128
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:36:58.450735+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:56.744432
License: Public Domain

MOELLER, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The obvious intent of A.R.S. § 33-420(A) is to provide some relief to property owners who are victimized by the wrongful filing of documents that cloud their title. The trial court, the court of appeals, and this court all agree that the lis pendens filed in this case was groundless and asserted a false and unsupportable claim. Indeed, the trial court’s finding that the lis pendens was filed in bad faith to harass defendants is unchallenged here. Also unchallenged is the fact that plaintiffs’ attorney filed the lis pendens for plaintiffs’ benefit and that the attorney had authority to act on plaintiffs’ behalf in filing it. See at 283, 806 P.2d at 872. These facts are unchallenged because they are unchallengable. The lis pendens was filed solely for plaintiffs’ benefit and its filing had its exact intended effect.
Still, the majority concludes that plaintiffs are not subject to damages under § 33-420(A) because their lawyer filed an affidavit stating that he did not tell his clients when he filed the lis pendens. The affidavit is wholly silent as to whether the attorney continued to keep his clients in ignorance during the litigation to remove the lis pendens.
Under the majority’s holding, although plaintiffs benefit from the filing of the lis pendens, they are immune from any liability for filing a wrongful lis pendens. Although the lawyer’s act in filing the lis pendens does not bind plaintiffs, that same lawyer’s act in filing an affidavit is deemed adequate to wholly exonerate plaintiffs from liability. The majority’s holding effectively repeals A.R.S. § 33-420(A). The lawyer is not liable because he claims no interest in the property. The client is not liable because he claims ignorance of his attorney’s actions. Such claims of client ignorance will usually be uncontrovertible because the attorney-client privilege precludes discovery of the facts.
The lis pendens statute, A.R.S. § 12-1191(A),5 grants to a plaintiff or to a defendant, not to their lawyers, the right to file a lis pendens when pending litigation affects title to their real property. Because a lis pendens is always ancillary to litigation, the lawyer, not the client, usually files the lis pendens. In the future, only lawyers who have not read the majority opinion in this case will tell their clients when they file a lis pendens, for to do so will break the shield of immunity this court has now created for uninformed clients.
*288The majority acknowledges that “Common law agency principles hold that an attorney, by virtue of the attorney-client relationship, has implied authority to perform acts incident or necessary to the purpose for which he was retained, including the day-to-day tactical decisions involved in the litigation process.” At 284, 806 P.2d at 873. I agree with this statement and the legion of cases supporting it. I cannot, however, agree with the majority’s conclusion that the legislature, in enacting A.R.S. § 33-420(A), intended to abrogate these universally recognized common law principles. Absent any contrary indication, the legislature must be presumed to intend that the usual common law rules of imputation of knowledge from agent to principal apply. I simply fail to see in the language of the statute any suggestion of intent to abrogate the common law, or to exempt from the statute those entities, such as corporations, which can act only through agents.
I also find unpersuasive the majority’s reliance on default judgment cases arising under procedural court rules. The majority correctly notes that in some cases this court has held that the sins of an attorney should not be visited upon a client in the form of a default judgment. Those cases, however, are inapposite to the present case. First, a default judgment is truly penal in nature and is far harsher than a legislative remedy of treble damages with a modest alternative of liquidated damages. Second, how this court chooses to apply sanctions to clients for their lawyers’ violations of court-created and court-enforced rules of court procedure is of little or no materiality here. The legislature has considered the problem of wrongful filing of lis pendens and has prescribed a measured and appropriate remedy. This court should follow that statute.
Finally, I note that the majority’s opinion is founded solely upon its interpretation of the statute and invokes no constitutional overtones. Accordingly, as the majority notes (footnote 3, at 285, 806 P.2d at 874), the legislature, if it so chooses, may correct the “problem” found by the majority.

. A. In an action affecting title to real property, plaintiff at the time of filing the complaint, or thereafter, and defendant at the time of filing his pleading when affirmative relief is claimed in such pleading, or thereafter, may file in the office of the recorder of the county in which the property is situated a notice of the pendency of the action or defense. The notice shall contain the names of the parties, the object of the action or affirmative defense, the relief demanded and a description of the property affected. A.R.S. § 12-1191(A) (emphasis added).