[WSBAPT] Enforceability of Judgment Lien Related to Closing of Sale of Real Property by Estate

Sat Jul 15 16:30:50 PDT 2017

Doug, 

Not sure what is meant by suddenly, but I assume you mean upon receiving a
copy of the preliminary title report. 

Assuming, without knowing, the judgment is less than the sale price, why not
ask your title company (escrow) to hold back the amount of funds from the
judgment out of closing and hold onto it until October 20th (or whatever
date) and if the judgment isn't renewed by then they can pay it out to the
estate. Or they can interplead it into the Court registry and let you fight
over it later. 

Sincerely,

Tom

Thomas J. Westbrook

Attorney at Law

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From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com
[mailto:wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com] On Behalf Of Douglas Bratt
Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2017 3:45 PM
To: wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com
Subject: [WSBAPT] Enforceability of Judgment Lien Related to Closing of Sale
of Real Property by Estate

Hello Listmates:

We are close to closing a sale of a residence by an Estate.  

Suddenly, I find out about an old judgment.

The judgment, for just under $20K, was entered in District Court in the
county in which the Estate-owned real estate is located on September 25,
2006.  A Transcript of the District Court Judgment was then filed in the
Superior Court in the same county on October 19, 2007.  The judgment was
subsequently recorded on October 22, 2007, with the Auditor of the same
county.  It is showing up as an exception on a Title Policy Commitment, and
the escrow closer is in the midst of making inquiry about a payoff figure
for the judgment from the Judgment Creditor's Attorney.

As I understand the law related to judgments, the judgment is enforceable
for ten years after entry, but that period can be extended an additional ten
years by petitioning the court that entered the judgment within 90 days of
the expiration of the original ten years.  

However, sadly, I find that under RCW 6.17.020(3), if a District Court
judgment has been transcribed to the Superior Court, the petition is not to
be filed in District Court, and thus be tied to the ten year anniversary of
the entry of the District Court Judgment. Rather, the Petition to extend is
to be filed in the Superior Court and the Petition must be filed within 90
days of the expiration of the ten year period after the date the transcript
of judgment was filed in the Superior Court, not the District Court.  So,
even though relating back to the original date of the District Court
judgment would have been supremely helpful, the statute means that the
Judgment Creditor would have until October 19, 2017, to file the Petition to
extend the judgment.     

The Decedent died on September 3, 2017. The first date of publication of the
Notice to Creditors took place on October 7, 2016.  Thus, the four-month
period for Creditor's Claims expired on February 7, 2017.  The Judgment
Creditor did not file a Creditor's Claim. In addition, the PR found no
evidence of the judgment when making the PR's reasonable search to ascertain
the identity of Creditors to determine which creditors, if any, were to get
actual notice.  However, I am not thinking that of the Judgment Creditor to
file a Creditor's Claim in the probate will defeat the lien of judgment on
the real estate owned by the Decedent.   

My initial conclusion is that we are SOL on trying to escape liability on
the judgment, due to the fact that the lien of judgment attaches to the real
estate of the judgment debtor, and it does not appear that the judgment
debtor's death nor any defenses under the Creditor's Claim statute will help
us in escaping the effect of the judgment, with the real estate closing
becoming the means of collection for the Judgment Creditor. 

Any contrary thoughts about the possibility of escaping liability on this
judgment?

Thank you for your collective knowledge.

Regards,

Doug Bratt

Douglas J. Bratt

Lawyer

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