1997 -NMCA- 16, Thoma v. Thoma

• Decision Date: 24 December 1996
• Docket Number: No. 15930,15930
• Citation: 934 P.2d 1066,123 N.M. 137,1997 NMCA 16
• Parties: , 1997 -NMCA- 16 Cynthia THOMA, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Joseph E. THOMA, Sr., Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: Court of Appeals of New Mexico

Page 1066

934 P.2d 1066

123 N.M. 137, 1997 -NMCA- 16

Cynthia THOMA, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Joseph E. THOMA, Sr., Respondent-Appellee.

No. 15930.

Court of Appeals of New Mexico.

Dec. 24, 1996.

Certiorari Denied Feb. 19, 1997.

Paul S. Wainwright, Paul S. Wainwright, P.A., Albuquerque, for Petitioner-Appellant.

William A. L'Esperance, Albuquerque, for Respondent-Appellee.

OPINION

WECHSLER, Judge.

¶1 This case illustrates the tension between the rule allowing collateral attack on a judgment entered without jurisdiction and the rule requiring that matters litigated to conclusion are entitled to be considered finally settled between the parties. Wife appeals from the district court's order determining that an Oklahoma divorce decree and subsequent judgments were void for lack of personal jurisdiction. As a result of that determination, the district court denied filing under the New Mexico Foreign Judgments Act (NMFJA), NMSA 1978, §§ 39-4A-1 to -6 (Repl.Pamp.1991 & Cum.Supp.1996). We reverse and remand because we reject Husband's arguments that: (1) he was entitled in the proceedings below to show that Oklahoma did not have personal jurisdiction over him; and (2) New Mexico did not have to give full faith and credit to the Oklahoma judgment Wife was seeking to file because Oklahoma did not give full faith and credit to an earlier New Mexico judgment. In addition, as this Court will affirm if the trial court reaches the correct result for any reason, see Elder v. Park, 104 N.M. 163, 165, 717 P.2d 1132, 1134 (Ct.App.1986), we also discuss several other grounds that were either raised below or that arguably may be raised by this Court for the first time on appeal.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

¶2 Husband and Wife were married in Oklahoma in 1979. They lived together in New Mexico until February 3, 1982, when Wife left Husband and moved from New Mexico, taking their minor daughter with her. Husband remained in New Mexico.

I. New Mexico Proceedings

¶3 On the day after Wife left, Husband filed for divorce in New Mexico, serving Wife by publication. On July 28, 1982, the Bernalillo County District Court granted Husband a final decree of divorce. The decree stated both that custody would be determined when the child was located and that Husband was granted custody of the child; child support was not addressed. On January 7, 1983, Wife petitioned the Bernalillo County court to set aside this decree, contending that service by publication was improper because Husband had known her whereabouts and because a divorce action brought by Wife was then pending before an Oklahoma court which had jurisdiction over all parties including the minor child. The court denied Wife's petition and entered an amended final decree of divorce on March 10, 1983, stating that Wife did not appear but had been duly notified and served through a previous attorney and by publication. The amended final decree stated that Husband was granted custody of the child, but did not address the issue of child support.

II. Oklahoma Proceedings

¶4 On August 4, 1982, Wife filed for divorce in Oklahoma. Husband, represented by counsel, made a special appearance, contesting the Oklahoma court's jurisdiction over him and stating that a New Mexico court had already granted a divorce. The Oklahoma County District Court overruled Husband's special appearance and Husband did not participate further in the proceeding. On May 27, 1983, the court entered a default judgment granting Wife a divorce and custody of the child, and ordering Husband to pay $250 per month in child support beginning June 1, 1983.

¶5 Husband failed to pay child support as ordered, and in 1991 Wife filed an application for contempt in the Oklahoma court. Husband again made a special appearance, this time pro se, to contest the Oklahoma court's jurisdiction. On December 11, 1991, the Oklahoma court entered a judgment awarding Wife $25,200 plus interest at 11.73% per annum, representing child support arrears.

III. Petition To File Oklahoma Judgment in New Mexico

¶6 On August 4, 1993, Wife petitioned to file the December 11, 1991 Oklahoma judgment in Bernalillo County District Court under the NMFJA. The court consolidated the case with the 1982-1983 New Mexico divorce cause, upheld the New Mexico divorce, and denied Wife's petition to enforce the 1991 Oklahoma judgment. Wife appealed.

DISCUSSION

¶7 The NMFJA is based upon the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (UEFJA) §§ 1-10, 13 U.L.A. 149-80 (1986 & Cum.Supp.1996). Conglis v. Radcliffe, 119 N.M. 287, 289, 889 P.2d 1209, 1211 (1995). The purpose of the UEFJA is to provide a speedy and economical means of satisfying the constitutional obligation to give full faith and credit to sister state judgments. UEFJA, 13 U.L.A. 150 prefatory note (1986); see Conglis, 119 N.M. at 289, 889 P.2d at 1211.

¶8 Production of an authenticated copy of a foreign judgment constitutes a prima facie case for enforcement under the UEFJA. Oyakawa v. Gillett, 175 Ariz. 226, 228, 854 P.2d 1212, 1215 (1993); Minuteman Press Int'l, Inc. v. Sparks, 782 S.W.2d 339, 340 (Tex.Ct.App.1989). The burden then shifts to the defendant to prove any defense to enforcement. Minuteman Press Int'l, Inc., 782 S.W.2d at 340-41; see Worthington v. Miller, 11 Kan.App.2d 396, 727 P.2d 928, 932 (1986) (burden of challenging jurisdiction rests heavily on defendant). Potential defenses are lack of personal or subject matter jurisdiction, fraud in procuring the judgment, lack of due process, or other grounds making the judgment invalid or unenforceable. Conglis, 119 N.M. at 289, 889 P.2d at 1211; Rubin v. Rubin, 120 N.M. 592, 594, 904 P.2d 41, 43 (Ct.App.1995); Jordan v. Hall, 115 N.M. 775, 778, 858 P.2d 863, 866 (Ct.App.1993).

I. Personal Jurisdiction over Husband in Oklahoma

¶9 In the case on appeal, the New Mexico district court determined that the Oklahoma court never obtained personal jurisdiction over Husband, a New Mexico resident. Oklahoma law would apply for this determination. See Electro-Measure, Inc. v. Ewald Enters., Inc., 398 N.W.2d 85, 88 (Minn.Ct.App.1986), review denied (Mar. 13, 1987); China Express, Inc. v. Volpi & Son Mach. Corp., 126 A.D.2d 239, 513 N.Y.S.2d 388, 389 (1987); Data Management Sys., Inc. v. EDP Corp., 709 P.2d 377, 380 (Utah 1985) (per curiam). The New Mexico court found that Husband had never consented to jurisdiction in Oklahoma. Based on testimony from Husband and Wife, the court also found that the parties had never lived together as husband and wife in Oklahoma and apparently concluded that Oklahoma lacked personal jurisdiction over Husband under the Oklahoma long arm statute applicable to domestic relations proceedings. See Okla.Stat.Ann tit. 12, § 1272.2 (West 1988). The record does not show and the parties do not argue that the parties lived in a parental relationship in Oklahoma, which would also provide jurisdiction under Section 1272.2. If the Oklahoma court lacked personal jurisdiction, its order requiring Husband to pay child support would be void. See Taylor v. Taylor, 709 P.2d 707, 709 (Okla.Ct.App.1985).

¶10 The question before this Court is whether the doctrine of issue preclusion and the Full Faith and Credit Clause, U.S. Const. art. IV, § 1, permit Husband to collaterally attack the Oklahoma judgment in New Mexico for lack of personal jurisdiction. The answer to this question involves Husband's special appearances in the Oklahoma proceedings. If Husband had never appeared, he could raise lack of personal jurisdiction in Oklahoma as a defense to Wife's enforcement action in New Mexico. See Baldwin v. Iowa State Traveling Men's Ass'n, 283 U.S. 522, 525, 51 S.Ct. 517, 517-18, 75 L.Ed. 1244 (1931); Conglis, 119 N.M. at 289, 889 P.2d at 1211. Husband made a special appearance in Oklahoma, however, in 1982 to argue that the court lacked personal jurisdiction over him and the Oklahoma court determined that it had jurisdiction.

¶11 Under the doctrine of issue preclusion (collateral estoppel), relitigation of personal jurisdiction over Husband would be precluded in Oklahoma if this issue was actually and necessarily determined by the Oklahoma court. See Fent v. Oklahoma Natural Gas Co., 898 P.2d 126, 133 (Okla.1994); Swan v. Sargent Indus., 620 P.2d 473, 474 (Okla.Ct.App.), cert. denied (Nov. 7, 1980). By making a special appearance, Husband submitted to the Oklahoma court's jurisdiction for the limited purpose of determining jurisdiction and is bound by that court's determination. See Insurance Corp. of Ireland v. Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee, 456 U.S. 694, 706, 102 S.Ct. 2099, 2106, 72 L.Ed.2d 492 (1982); Baldwin, 283 U.S. at 525-26, 51 S.Ct. at 517-18; Swan, 620 P.2d at 474-77. Of course, the issue sought to be precluded would have had to have been litigated in prior proceedings that provided the opportunity for full and fair litigation, see First Nat'l Bank & Trust Co. v. Lawing, 731 F.2d 680, 684 (10th Cir.1984); see also Baldwin, 283 U.S. at 525-26, 51 S.Ct. at 517-18, but Husband does not contend that anything prevented him from so litigating the question of personal jurisdiction in Oklahoma. The result is that Husband would be precluded under Oklahoma law from relitigating the issue of personal jurisdiction.

¶12 Under the Full Faith and Credit Clause, relitigation is therefore also precluded in New Mexico. The Full Faith and Credit Clause requires each state to give the final judgment of a sister state "at least the res judicata effect which the judgment would be accorded in the State which rendered it." Durfee v. Duke, 375 U.S. 106, 109, 84 S.Ct. 242, 244, 11 L.Ed.2d 186 (1963). "Public policy dictates that there be an end of litigation; that those who have contested an issue shall be bound by the result of the contest, and that matters once tried shall be considered forever settled as between the parties." Baldwin, 283 U.S. at 525, 51 S.Ct. at 518.

¶13 The New Mexico district court erred, therefore, in...