City of Everett v. Estate of Oddmund Sumstad
Washington Supreme Court
95 Wash. 2d 853, 631 P.2d 366 (1981)
- Written by Angela Patrick, JD
Facts
The estate of Oddmund Sumstad (defendant) sold a safe at an auction. The safe had a combination lock on the outer door, which was open. The safe also had an inner compartment with a key lock, which was locked. The auctioneer notified bidders that the safe’s combination and key were both unavailable. The auctioneer did not reserve any rights to anything that might be in the safe’s inner compartment. The auction’s rules were that all sales were final. Aware of all this information, Al and Rosemary Mitchell (defendants) bought the safe for $50. The Mitchells then took the safe to a locksmith. The locksmith opened the inner compartment and discovered over $32,000 in cash. The locksmith called the police, who impounded the money. The City of Everett (plaintiff) filed an interpleader action to determine the money’s legal owner, naming the estate and the Mitchells as defendants. The estate claimed that it had intended to sell only the safe, not its contents. The trial court granted summary judgment for the estate. The court of appeals affirmed. The Washington Supreme Court granted certiorari to review.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Dolliver, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 804,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
