## Facts

- Mount Bay Corporation owned Pierce County real property encumbered by multiple deeds of trust: Glidden (senior), Old Stone Bank (junior), and the Municipal Authority of the City of Tacoma (junior), plus other junior liens.
- After Mount Bay defaulted on Glidden’s obligation, the trustee under Glidden’s deed of trust initiated a nonjudicial foreclosure under Washington’s Deeds of Trust Act (RCW 61.24).
- The trustee recorded and posted a notice of trustee’s sale but failed to provide the statutorily required written notice to junior lienholders, including Old Stone Bank.
- Old Stone Bank began its own foreclosure on its junior lien and gave notice of its sale to the trustee and to the Municipal Authority.
- At the trustee’s sale under Glidden’s deed of trust (October 17, 1986), the Municipal Authority (a junior lienholder) was the successful bidder and received a trustee’s deed.
- The trustee’s deed contained recitals stating notice had been sent to all persons entitled to notice and that statutory requirements had been satisfied.
- After the sale, the trustee learned Old Stone Bank had not received notice and attempted to rescind the sale; the Municipal Authority refused to accept the rescission.

## Issues

1. Whether RCW 61.24.040(7)’s “conclusive evidence” effect for trustee’s deed recitals in favor of a bona fide purchaser applies when the purchaser is also a junior lienholder.
2. Whether, on summary judgment, the Municipal Authority could be treated as not being a bona fide purchaser for value as a matter of law, permitting Old Stone Bank to attack the sale based on lack of statutory notice.

## Decision

- The Washington Supreme Court reversed the summary judgment entered for Old Stone Bank and remanded.
- The Court held RCW 61.24.040(7) may apply to a purchaser who is also a junior lienholder; junior lienholders are not categorically excluded from bona fide purchaser protection.
- The Court held the summary-judgment record did not resolve factual questions bearing on whether the Municipal Authority acted as a bona fide purchaser for value.
- The case was remanded for further proceedings to determine the Municipal Authority’s bona fide purchaser status and the resulting effect of the trustee’s deed recitals.

## Legal Principles

- Under RCW 61.24.040(7), trustee’s deed recitals of statutory compliance are conclusive evidence of those facts in favor of a bona fide purchaser for value.
- A junior lienholder who purchases at a trustee’s sale may qualify as a bona fide purchaser and may invoke the statute’s conclusive-evidence protection.
- Bona fide purchaser status generally requires purchase for value, in good faith, and without actual or constructive notice of competing interests or sale defects; whether these elements are met is often fact-dependent.
- The Deeds of Trust Act is construed to support finality and reliability of titles obtained through nonjudicial foreclosure, while permitting challenges where the purchaser is not a bona fide purchaser.

## Conclusion

The court held that statutory trustee’s deed recitals can conclusively establish foreclosure compliance for a bona fide purchaser even when the buyer is a junior lienholder, but it reversed summary judgment because factual disputes remained as to whether the purchasing lienholder lacked notice of the defective statutory notice and therefore qualified as a bona fide purchaser.


Glidden v. Municipal Authority of City of Tacoma, 111 Wn.2d 341, 758 P.2d 487 (Wash. 1988)