Griffith v. Seattle Consolidated Street Railway Co.

Citations

• 36 Wash. 627
• 79 P. 314
• 1904 Wash. LEXIS 586

Syllabus

<p>Limitations of Actions — Relief on the Ground of Fraud— Discovery of Fraud — Complaint—Sufficiency. An action by the holder of part of the bonds of a street railway corporation, seeking an accounting for certain property alleged to have been fraudulently abandoned to foreclosure sale, under a fraudulent reorganization scheme arranged by the defendant companies and their mortgagees, and the other bondholders, whereby the plaintiff, who was absent in Central America, was to be excluded from such reorganization by effecting the same before he could have actual knowledge thereof, is barred by the statute of limitations when it is not commenced until more than three years after the decree of foreclosure whereby the property passed into other hands, where the plaintiff admits actual knowledge of the foreclosure decree; and the allegation that he did not have knowledge of the reorganization scheme or of the fraudulent plan to exclude him therefrom and that the same were not discovered within the said statutory period, will not evade the effect of the averments showing actual notice of the real fraud, which consisted in abandoning the defenses and confessing the decree of foreclosure; since the plaintiff is not seeking participation in the reorganization, but an accounting in property sold to his prejudice, and to his knowledge for more than the statutory period.</p>