Eschenhagen v. Zika, 1

• Court: Court of Appeals of Arizona
• Writing for the Court: GRANT; HAIRE, P.J., and BROOKS
• Citation: 144 Ariz. 213,696 P.2d 1362
• Parties: Betty J. ESCHENHAGEN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Andrew P. ZIKA, Jr., Defendant-Appellant. 6747.
• Docket Number: No. 1,CA-CIV,1
• Decision Date: 08 January 1985

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.

[144 Ariz. 214]

Page 1363

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 [144 Ariz. 215]

Page 1364

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...