Barton v. Alpine Investments, Inc.

The dispositive question to be answered here is whether the 1947 reformation-of-deed default judgment on publication service alone, entered in Roger Mills County, is void on the face of the record proper [roll] as that term is defined in 12 O.S.1971 § 704.1 If our answer be in the affirmative, the judgment was subject to a collateral attack in the suit under review since a facially void judgment may be set aside at any time.2 In case of our negative answer, appellant [Alpine] no longer can avoid the judgment’s binding force as the limitations period had run.3

Alpine attributes fatal defect in…