The court may first try and decide upon the grounds to vacate or modify a judgment or order, before trying or deciding upon the validity of the defense or cause of action.
RCW 4.72.060
Grounds for vacation may first be tried.
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case 62 Wash. 2d 437 - Johanson v. United Truck Lines (1963)
Most recently applied in 75 Wash. App. 721 - Matter of Marriage of Knight (September 1994)
Code 1881 s 442; 1877 p 97 s 440; 1875 p 22 s 7; RRS s 470.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.