Griggs v. Gibson
| Decision Date | 17 March 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. 86CA0028,86CA0028 |
| Parties | Jim W. GRIGGS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Robert W. GIBSON, Defendant, Sandra Yellico Austin, Garnishee-Appellant. . I |
| Court | Colorado Court of Appeals |
Hawthorne & Meconi, P.C., Edd C. Gillespie, Canon City, for plaintiff-appellee.
Edwin K. McMartin, P.C., Edwin K. McMartin, Pueblo, for garnishee-appellant.
The garnishee, Sandra Yellico Austin, appeals the judgment for $10,000 entered against her in favor of plaintiff, Jim W. Griggs, under the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, § 13-53-101, et seq., C.R.S. (1987 Repl.Vol. 6A) (the Act). We reverse.
The Act is designed to simplify the procedure for enforcing in this state a judgment rendered in another state. Prior to its adoption, the only method available to enforce such a judgment was the institution of a typical civil action, grounded upon the prior judgment, which action was subject to the "full procedural requirements" of any other civil action. See Hunter Technology, Inc. v. Scott, 701 P.2d 645 (Colo.App.1985). While that option remains open to a foreign judgment creditor, see § 13-53-107, C.R.S. (1987 Repl.Vol. 6A); Hunter Technology, Inc. v. Scott, supra, such a creditor may now elect to follow the alternate, simplified, procedures set forth in the Act.
Under these procedures, §§ 13-53-103 and 13-53-104, C.R.S. (1987 Repl.Vol. 6A), the creditor must file with the clerk of the Colorado court a "copy" of the foreign judgment, "authenticated in accordance with ... the laws of this state." The authenticated copy of the judgment must be accompanied by an affidavit that sets forth the names and last known addresses of the judgment creditor and the judgment debtor. Thereupon, the clerk of the court is enjoined to send a written notice of the filing of the judgment to the judgment debtor.
Upon the judgment creditor's filing of these documents, the foreign judgment has the "same effect" as a judgment rendered by the court where it is filed, and that judgment may be enforced, satisfied, stayed, vacated, or reopened in the same manner as any other judgment of that court. However, no "execution or other process for enforcement" of that judgment may be issued until ten days after the authenticated copy is filed with the court.
In this case, the record does not contain an authenticated copy of the judgment that plaintiff sought to enforce in this state. Rather, plaintiff sought to invoke the simplified procedures established by the Act by filing an "Affidavit of Foreign Judgment," in which plaintiff's Colorado counsel purported to describe a judgment entered by a California court in June 1980. Based upon this affidavit, the district court entered various orders granting to plaintiff the right to proceed to collect a debt purportedly owed by garnishee to a partnership in which defendant allegedly had a fifty per cent interest.
To collect this debt, a writ of garnishment was issued to garnishee; when she returned the writ indicating that she was not indebted to the partnership, a traverse was filed by plaintiff and a hearing held before the court. At that hearing, garnishee objected to the proceedings, arguing that, in the absence of the filing of an...
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...he sought to enroll, and this omission deprived the chancery court of authority to act on Father's request. See Griggs v. Gibson, 754 P.2d 783, 785 (Colo. App. 1988) (holding that trial court lacked authority to take any enforcement actions where the plaintiff failed to file an authenticate......
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...moved for a change in venue under Rule 98. Citing Hunter Technology, Inc. v. Scott, 701 P.2d 645 (Colo.App.1985), and Griggs v. Gibson, 754 P.2d 783 (Colo.App.1988), he argues that (1) a proceeding under section 13–53–103 is not an “action”; (2) Rule 98 applies only to “actions”; and (3) th......
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Indep. Bank v. Pandy
...a foreign judgment into a domestic judgment capable of being enforced through the judicial processes of this state.” Griggs v. Gibson, 754 P.2d 783, 785 (Colo. App. 1988) ; see also In re Marriage of Lyon, 764 P.2d 384, 385 (Colo. App. 1988) ; Hansen v. Pingenot, 739 P.2d 911, 913 (Colo. Ap......
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Karow v. Mitchell
...for the proposition that the Mitchells are trying to enforce a nonexistent judgment, but I offer, in point, the case of Griggs v. Gibson, 754 P.2d 783 (Colo.Ct.App.1988). When the judgment creditor in that case sought enforcement of a foreign judgment, he failed at the time of initiating th......