Don Docksteader Motors, Ltd. v. Patal Enterprises, Ltd.
| Decision Date | 06 September 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. C-9185,C-9185 |
| Citation | 794 S.W.2d 760 |
| Parties | DON DOCKSTEADER MOTORS, LTD., Petitioner, v. PATAL ENTERPRISES, LTD., et al., Respondents. |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
This cause presents a challenge to the constitutionality of the Uniform Foreign Country Money-Judgments Recognition Act ("Recognition Act"). Don Docksteader Motors, Ltd. filed suit in a Texas district court to recognize and enforce a judgment rendered by the Supreme Court of British Columbia, ordering Patal Enterprises, Ltd., et al. to pay Docksteader $152,377.01 in Canadian dollars. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Patal. The court of appeals affirmed the trial court's judgment on the basis that the Recognition Act was unconstitutional. 776 S.W.2d 726. We reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and remand this cause to the trial court.
The recognition and enforcement of foreign country money judgments is governed by the Recognition Act, Tex.Civ.Prac. & Rem.Code §§ 36.001-.008, and by the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, Tex.Civ.Prac. & Rem.Code §§ 35.001-.008 ("Enforcement Act"). The Recognition Act sets forth the grounds on which the recognition of a foreign country money judgment may be challenged. However, effective at the time of this litigation, the Act did not expressly set forth a procedure by which a judgment debtor could assert grounds for nonrecognition. 1 Uniform Foreign Country Money-Judgments Recognition Act, ch. 808, 1981 Tex.Gen.Laws 3069, amended by ch. 402, § 5, 1989 Tex.Gen.Laws 1544. For this reason, the court of appeals held that the Recognition Act failed to provide due process and ruled it unconstitutional. 776 S.W.2d at 728.
Although it did not set forth an express procedure, section 36.004 of the Recognition Act plainly states that a foreign country judgment "is enforceable in the same manner as a judgment of a sister state that is entitled to full faith and credit." A judgment of a sister state is enforceable by two means and thus, pursuant to the Recognition Act, a foreign country money judgment is enforceable by the same two means. One such means is the statutory "short-cut" set forth in the Enforcement Act, Tex.Civ.Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. §§ 35.003-.005 (Vernon 1986); the second means is the bringing of a common-law action to enforce a judgment. See id. § 35.008. In a common-law suit, a judgment debtor is afforded notice and a plenary hearing at which all defenses including grounds for nonrecognition can be asserted. Docksteader filed a common-law suit to recognize and enforce its Canadian...
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Cantu v. Howard S. Grossman, P.A.
...common law action to enforce a foreign judgment and the "short cut method" for enforcement outlined in the Uniform Act. See Don Docksteader Motors, 794 S.W.2d at 761. Though venue rights would be available under the common law method (which requires the filing of a lawsuit), they are not av......
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Reading & Bates Const. Co. v. Baker Energy Resources Corp.
...and credit. 11 The UFCMJRA governs the recognition and enforcement of foreign country money judgments. Don Docksteader Motors, Ltd. v. Patal Enters., Ltd., 794 S.W.2d 760, 760 (Tex.1990). Texas will recognize a foreign country judgment under the UFCMJRA if four conditions are (1) The judgme......
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...enforcement of a foreign-country judgment in Texas. See Tex. Fam.Code Ann. § 159.104 (West 2014) ; Don Docksteader Motors, Ltd. v. Patal Enterprises, Ltd., 794 S.W.2d 760, 760–61 (Tex.1990). Title 28, section 1738B of the United States Code and Chapter 35 of the Texas Civil Practice and Rem......
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...Plastics Corp., 764 S.W.2d 924 (Tex.App.--Amarillo 1989, no writ), overruled on other grounds, Don Docksteader Motors, Ltd. v. Patal Enterprises, Ltd., 794 S.W.2d 760, 761 (Tex.1990). Further, because Tri-Steel still had a manner of recourse even after the defective notice, it has failed to......