Eschenhagen v. Zika

• Decision Date: 08 January 1985
• Docket Number: No. 1,CA-CIV,1
• Citation: Eschenhagen v. Zika, 144 Ariz. 213, 696 P.2d 1362 (Ariz. App. 1985)
• Parties: Betty J. ESCHENHAGEN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Andrew P. ZIKA, Jr., Defendant-Appellant. 6747.
• Court: Arizona Court of Appeals

Page 1362

696 P.2d 1362

144 Ariz. 213

Betty J. ESCHENHAGEN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Andrew P. ZIKA, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.

No. 1 CA-CIV 6747.

Court of Appeals of Arizona Division 1, Department A.

Jan. 8, 1985.

Howard, DeRoon & Seyffer by Louis DeRoon III, Phoenix, for plaintiff-appellee.

Owens, Rybarsyk & Nussbaum by Randy Nussbaum, Scottsdale, for defendant-appellant.

OPINION

GRANT, Judge.

The appellee, Betty J. Eschenhagen, obtained a Missouri judgment against Rogers and Associates Inc. and Andrew P. Zika, Jr., on or about October 12, 1971. On or about February 19, 1981, the appellee domesticated the judgment pursuant to Arizona's Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act. Appellant Zika filed a motion to quash the filing of the foreign judgment on the basis that it had not been timely filed in Arizona. The trial court found no bar to the filing of the foreign judgment and therefore denied the motion to quash. Appellant seeks review of the trial court's denial of his motion to quash the filing of the foreign judgment.

This case raises an issue of first impression in this state, whether a foreign judgment filed in Arizona under its Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act must be filed within the five-year time limit for enforcing a judgment in Arizona or whether it is sufficient that the foreign judgment is filed in Arizona during the time the judgment is still valid in the state of origin.

Arizona has adopted the Revised Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, the 1964 version of the Act, found at A.R.S. § 12-1701 et seq. An earlier version of the Uniform Act drafted in 1948 is in effect in some jurisdictions. The Act provides that foreign judgments may be domesticated (converted into Arizona judgments) by filing a copy of an authenticated foreign judgment. A.R.S. § 12-1702 provides:

A copy of any foreign judgment authenticated in accordance with the act of congress or the statutes of this state may be filed in the office of the clerk of any superior court of this state. The clerk shall treat the foreign judgment in the same manner as a judgment of the superior court of this state. A judgment so filed has the same effect and is subject to the same procedures, defenses and proceedings for reopening, vacating, or staying as a judgment of a superior court of this state and may be enforced or satisfied in like manner.

The foreign judgments which are entitled to be domesticated under the Uniform Act are defined in A.R.S. § 12-1701 as "any judgment, decree, or order of a court of the United States or of any other court which is entitled to full faith and credit in this state."

The appellee filed her Missouri judgment under the Act approximately nine and a half years after the judgment had been entered in Missouri. Missouri has a ten-year statute of limitations for enforcing judgments. Missouri Revised Statutes § 511.370. Consequently the judgment was still a valid Missouri judgment at the time it was filed in Arizona. Arizona's statute of limitations for enforcing judgments is only five years. Arizona does provide a process for renewing judgments, but renewal must be accomplished before the five years expires. A.R.S. § 12-1551(A) and (B) provide:

A. The party in whose favor a judgment is given may, at any time within five years after entry of the judgment and within five years after any renewal of the judgment either by affidavit or by an action brought thereon, have a writ of execution or other process issued for its enforcement.

B. No execution or other process shall be issued upon a judgment after the expiration of five years from the date of its entry unless the judgment is renewed by affidavit or process pursuant to § 12-1612 or an action is brought thereon within five years from the date of the entry of the judgment or of any renewal thereof.

If Arizona's rather than Missouri's statute of limitations for enforcing judgments applies, the judgment in the case would have been barred since it was not filed, or filed and renewed, within the five-year period.

It should also be noted that Arizona has a four-year statute of limitations for enforcing judgments rendered in other states, found in A.R.S. § 12-544(3). Clearly if appellee had brought an action to enforce her judgment instead of proceeding under the Uniform Act, she would have been barred by the four-year statute of limitations found in A.R.S. § 12-544(3). A.R.S. § 12-1706 of the Uniform Act provides that a party may bring an action to enforce the judgment instead of proceeding under the Uniform Act. Appellee, however, proceeded under the Uniform Act and therefore we have before us the task of determining what statute of limitations should apply.

Appellee argues as she did in the trial court that the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act was enacted so that a judgment, as long as it is valid in the rendering state at the time of filing under the Act, may be enforced in all other states which have enacted the Uniform Act. In other words, appellee argues that when a foreign judgment is filed in Arizona under the Uniform Act, Arizona must apply the statute of limitations of the rendering state if it is longer than its own statute of limitations to determine whether the judgment may be entered and thereafter treated as an Arizona judgment.

The trial court agreed with the appellee. In its minute entry ruling, the trial court reasoned that the purpose of the Uniform Act was to further the constitutional mandate that states give full faith and credit to judgments rendered by sister states and therefore that no statutory bar to a judgment filed under the Uniform Act could be raised if the judgment was valid in the rendering state at the time it was filed in Arizona. The trial court elaborated:

The policy underlying the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act is one designed to prevent judgment debtors from using state boundaries to escape payment of their adjudicated obligations. To this end, it is necessary that the Act and associated local statutes governing judgments be interpreted in a manner to promote the policy of the Act and to further the constitutional mandate that a state give full faith and credit to judgments rendered by its sister states, particularly those which, like Missouri, are parties to the Act.

This Court is of the opinion that when a foreign judgment is filed in this state pursuant to the Act, so long as it is then valid in the state of origin, this act of filing constitutes [sic ] "entry of the judgment" under A.R.S. Sec. 12-1551(A). And it is only at the time of this "entry" that the 5 year period commences to run. Since the instant judgment was admittedly valid at the time it was filed in this Court, the bar to execution in Sec. 12-1551(B) cannot be pleaded here and may not be used to prevent execution.

The Court feels this interpretation is necessary to further the policy of the Act. A contrary ruling would permit a Missouri judgment creditor [sic ] to avoid execution for 5 years and a day, then remove to Arizona and thus prevent any further attempts at execution relying on Sec. 12-1551(B). This is notwithstanding that the judgment debtor incurred the obligation on which the judgment was obtained in a jurisdiction that provided 10 years in which to collect if the debtor defaulted on the obligation. Moreover, although Arizona would bar execution after 5 years failing renewal, Arizona does permit repetitive renewals for 5 year period evidencing a policy that judgment creditors should have as much time as they need to collect on adjudicated and legitimate obligations. Thus, this interpretation does not defeat any competing policy of our state.

Additionally, the trial court found that the statute of limitations in A.R.S. § 12-544(3) was applicable only when an independent action on a foreign judgment was filed and had no application to a filing under the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act.

Appellant contends that the trial court's reasoning and ruling are incorrect. Appellant argues that the trial court's ruling is contrary to well-established authority that the Full Faith and Credit Clause does not require Arizona to apply the statute of limitations of sister states. Appellant argues that nothing in the policy behind the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act requires Arizona to apply the longer statute of limitations of its sister state, Missouri.

Appellant correctly observes that, as a general rule, Arizona applies its own statute of limitations when there is a conflict between its statute and that of a sister state and that such application does not violate the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the United States Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Full Faith and Credit Clause does not compel the forum state to use another state's limitations period. Wells v. Simonds Abrasive Co., 345 U.S. 514, 73 S.Ct. 856, 97 L.Ed. 1211 (1953). This is true not only for limitations periods for filing causes of actions but also for limitations periods for enforcing judgments. In Strickland v. Watt, 453 F.2d 393 (9th Cir.1972), judgment creditors sought to enforce judgments in the United States District Court for the state of Arizona. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that Arizona's four-year statute of limitations on foreign judgments rather than California's ten-year statute applied, observing that, generally, when a conflict between forum and foreign statutes of limitations occurs, Arizona applies the Arizona statute of limitations. See also Ross v. Ross, 96 Ariz. 249, 393 P.2d 933 (1964); Weller v. Weller, 14 Ariz.App. 42, 480 P.2d 379 (1971).

Appellee points out that the Strickland case involved an independent suit to enforce a foreign judgment rather than a filing of a foreign judgment under the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act. Appellee argues that all of the above mentioned authorities regarding application of the foreign states' statu...