Kradoska v. Kipp

• Decision Date: 29 January 1979
• Parties: Yta C. KRADOSKA v. Edna E. KIPP and Sylvester M. Farrington.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

Page 562

397 A.2d 562

Yta C. KRADOSKA v. Edna E. KIPP and Sylvester M. Farrington.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Jan. 29, 1979.

Alfred Feingold (orally), Liberty, for plaintiff.

Eaton, Peabody, Bradford & Veague by Clarissa B. Edelston (orally), Bangor, Roger F. Blake, Belfast, for defendants.

Before POMEROY, WERNICK, DELAHANTY and GODFREY, JJ.

DELAHANTY, Justice.

Yta C. Kradoska, the plaintiff, appeals from an order entered by the Superior Court, Waldo County, granting defendants' motion for summary judgment. The question presented on this appeal is whether the doctrine of res judicata bars the plaintiff's action. The appeal is sustained in part and denied in part, and the case is remanded to the Superior Court for further proceedings.

Kradoska is the daughter of Stuart M. Farrington and Harriet H. Morrow. Farrington divorced Morrow sometime after Kradoska was born but before he met his death in 1959. At the time of his death, he was seized of four encumbered parcels of land situated in Waldo County in the State of Maine and referred to throughout as parcels "A," "B," "C," and "D." Farrington's estate was insolvent, and the mortgages on the four parcels were foreclosed. Thereafter, defendant Kipp, who claims to have married Farrington sometime after the Morrow divorce, purchased assignments of the mortgages and recorded them in the Waldo County Registry of Deeds. The equities of redemption over the four parcels were never exercised.

In 1962, Kradoska filed a complaint in the Superior Court, Waldo County, naming Edna Kipp (then Edna Farrington), Sylvester Farrington (offspring of Edna Kipp and Stuart M. Farrington), and Roger Blake (administrator of the estate of Stuart M. Farrington) as defendants. The complaint alleged that Kradoska held equities of redemption over parcels "B" and "C" and that she had tendered a sum equivalent to the principal, interest, and taxes then due but that Edna Kipp had wrongfully refused to accept the tender. Regarding parcel "A," Kradoska alleged that as an heir of Stuart M. Farrington she was entitled to share in the distribution of the proceeds of any sale of that parcel. The complaint demanded that Kradoska be allowed to redeem parcels "B" and "C" and that a constructive trust be imposed on parcel "A" for the benefit of those entitled to share in the distribution of the assets, if any, of Farrington's estate. In the complaint, Edna Kipp and Sylvester Farrington are referred to as the "alleged widow" and the "alleged minor son" of Stuart M. Farrington. Although parcel "D" was not mentioned in the complaint, it was included on a list of the deceased's assets filed with the Probate Court some months after Kradoska filed her complaint.

The three defendants were never served.

The absence of any docket entries following the filing of the 1962 lawsuit indicates that Kradoska took no further action in support of her complaint. Accordingly, in October of 1964, almost two and one-half years after it was filed, the Superior Court dismissed the complaint pursuant to M.R.Civ.P. 41(b) for want of prosecution. Notice of the dismissal was sent to plaintiff's then attorney, but no motion to set aside the dismissal was ever made. The validity of the dismissal remains unchallenged to this day.

In August of 1976, fourteen years after the first complaint was filed, Kradoska filed the instant complaint again naming Edna Kipp and Sylvester Farrington as party defendants. On defendants' motion, Roger Blake, the administrator of the estate, was later joined as a party defendant to the action by the court pursuant to M.R.Civ.P. 19. Like the 1962 edition, the 1976 complaint sought title to land originally held by Stuart M. Farrington. It alleged, in effect, that Edna Kipp was never validly married to Stuart M. Farrington and that Sylvester Farrington was not his legitimate son. It was further alleged that Edna Kipp had fraudulently induced the mortgagees of parcels "A," "B," and "C" to assign their rights under the mortgages to her by falsely representing that she was Farrington's widow and thus entitled to the equities of redemption. This conduct is said to have illegally deprived the estate of its right of redemption over the land. The complaint also alleged that Kradoska had paid Edna Kipp the sum of $2,064.59 in order to redeem the mortgage on parcels "B" and "C" for the benefit of the estate. Finally, the complaint alleged that Kradoska had paid all taxes on parcels "B," "C," and "D" and all debts of the decedent from the time of his death until the present.

In sum, the 1976 complaint claimed that Kradoska was entitled to 1) all four parcels on a theory of intestate succession, 2) parcels "A," "B," and "C" based on Edna Kipp's allegedly fraudulent conduct, and 3) parcels "B" and "C" on a theory of payment.

In their answer, the defendants set up res judicata and laches as affirmative defenses and subsequently moved for summary judgment solely on the issue of res judicata. In granting that motion, the presiding Justice found, first, that there existed "no genuine issue as to any material fact," and, second, that since the issues raised by the 1976 complaint "were litigated, or could have been litigated" in the 1962 lawsuit, the doctrine of res judicata was properly invoked to bar the 1976 complaint.

This appeal followed.

The doctrine of res judicata, as it has evolved in this state, has been applied chiefly in the interests of judicial economy to bar relitigation of a cause of action that has already been resolved by a valid prior judgment; the scope of the bar extends to all issues "tried or that might have been tried" in the prior action. Bray v. Spencer, 146 Me. 416, 418, 82 A.2d 794, 795 (1951). See Hackett v. Eaton, Me., 389 A.2d 848 (1978); Thaxter v. Fry, Me., 222 A.2d 686 (1966); Cianchette v. Verrier, 155 Me. 74, 151 A.2d 502 (1959); Susi v. Davis, 133 Me. 354, 177 A. 610 (1935). In order for the doctrine to be applied, the court must satisfy itself that 1) the same parties, or their privies, are involved; 2) a valid final judgment was entered in the prior action; and 3) the matters presented for decision were, or might have been, litigated in the prior action.

The first element of the formula identity of parties is obviously present. In the 1962 action, as in the case at bar, Kradoska was the plaintiff; Blake, Edna Kipp, and Sylvester Farrington were the defendants.

With regard to the second element the validity of the prior judgment the plaintiff initially argues that the "mere filing of a complaint" does not suffice to commence an action because, in her view, under Maine procedure an action does not begin until a defendant has been served. If arguendo we accept this premise, then it follows that no prior action was ever validly begun and therefore the "dismissal" of the complaint in 1964 cannot now serve as the predicate for the defendants' assertion of res judicata.

At the time Kradoska filed her first complaint, the relevant statute, 14 M.R.S.A. § 553, provided as follows:

An action is commenced when the complaint is either Filed with the clerk, deposited in the mail addressed to the clerk, delivered to an officer for service or deposited in the mail addressed to such officer. ¹ (emphasis supplied).

Reflecting the Legislature's determination that a lawsuit may be initiated either by an in-court filing of a complaint or by service of process on the defendant, Rule 3 of the Maine Rules of Civil Procedure has at all pertinent times provided that "a civil action is commenced (1) by service of a summons and complaint, or (2) by filing a complaint with the court." The 1959 edition of the definitive text on the subject of state civil procedure, R. Field & V. McKusick, Maine Civil Practice § 3.2 (1959), discussed both the statute and Rule 3 and stated that an action may be commenced by the filing of a complaint. Thus, in 1962, when plaintiff filed her complaint, those wishing to inform themselves on the matter in question were told by statute, rule, and textual authority that the filing of a complaint would be sufficient to initiate a lawsuit.

Plaintiff's assertion that the filing of a complaint is a meaningless act unless followed by timely service of process on a defendant is not well taken. In the first place, this argument flies in the face of the relevant statute and rule, both of which state the contrary in the plainest possible terms. Furthermore, it has long been held that by filing a complaint the plaintiff is deemed to consent to the court's exercise of personal jurisdiction over him to resolve all matters raised by the plaintiff's complaint. As Mr. Justice Stone wrote in Adam v. Saenger, 303 U.S. 59, 67-68, 58 S.Ct. 454, 458, 82 L.Ed. 649, 654 (1938), "(t)he plaintiff having, by his voluntary act in demanding justice from the defendant, submitted himself to the jurisdiction of the court, there is nothing arbitrary or unreasonable in treating him as being there for all purposes for which justice to the defendant requires his presence. It is the price which the state may exact as the condition of opening its courts to the plaintiff." ² See also Frank L. Young Co. v. McNeal-Edwards Co., 283 U.S. 398, 400, 51 S.Ct. 538, 539, 75 L.Ed. 1140, 1141 (1931).

We are also concerned that a holding contrary to that reached today would pave the way for substantial abuses both foreseeable and unforeseeable of our court system. To hold, as the plaintiff urges, that a party is free to file a complaint without even subjecting himself to the risk of a dismissal with prejudice would be to undercut the integrity of the judicial process. It would encourage the filing of frivolous and unfounded claims by plaintiffs seeking only to muddy the waters with no risk to their own positions. It would thus add a new and highly nebulous dimension to the law of civil practice, an area that, as much as any other, must possess the attributes of precision and certainty or fail utterly.

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