In re Estate of Ferdinand E. Marcos Human Rights

• Decision Date: 31 July 2008
• Docket Number: No. 06-16301.,06-16301.
• Citation: 536 F.3d 980
• Parties: In re ESTATE OF FERDINAND E. MARCOS HUMAN RIGHTS LITIGATION, Celsa Hilao, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Estate of Ferdinand Marcos, Defendant-Appellee, Revelstoke Investment Corporation, Inc., Applicant for Intervention and Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

536 F.3d 980

In re ESTATE OF FERDINAND E. MARCOS HUMAN RIGHTS LITIGATION, Celsa Hilao, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Estate of Ferdinand Marcos, Defendant-Appellee Revelstoke Investment Corporation, Inc., Applicant for Intervention and Appellant.

No. 06-16301.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted June 17, 2008.

Filed July 31, 2008.

Eugene D. Gulland (argued) and Richard A. Jones, Covington & Burling LLP, Washington, D.C., for the proposed-intervenors-appellants.

Jon Van Dyke, Honolulu, HI, (argued); Robert A. Swift, Kohn, Swift & Graf, P.C., Philadelphia, PA, for the appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii; Manuel L. Real, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. MDL-00840-MLR.

Before: ALFRED T. GOODWIN, PAMELA ANN RYMER, and SANDRA S. IKUTA, Circuit Judges.

RYMER, Circuit Judge:

This appeal requires us to consider a novel situation involving the registration of a federal judgment. In short, the judgment was rendered in the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii and registered in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, where the prevailing plaintiff sought to enforce it against a non-party, Texas defendant. The defendant in the Texas enforcement action moved to dismiss on the ground that the judgment was not timely registered because, under Texas's borrowing statute, the Hawai`i "statute of limitations" for enforcing judgments applies and under it, the judgment had expired. This prompted the plaintiff to ask the rendering court to declare that the judgment was live and, in any event, to extend it, which the district court did. Meanwhile, the collection defendant moved to intervene in the extension proceeding, which the district court did not allow, and then to appeal the extension, which the court also did not allow. We conclude that the party against whom enforcement was sought had a significant protectable interest at stake that gave it the right to be heard in the extension proceeding, and to appeal. Having considered the intervenor's arguments on the merits, we also conclude that the district court erred in purporting to extend the judgment. Accordingly, we reverse the orders denying intervention, and vacate the order granting extension.

I

In March, 1986, a class of human rights victims whose lead plaintiff was Celsa Hilao brought suit in the District of Hawaii against Ferdinand E. Marcos and his estate. This action became part of a multidistrict proceeding, Estate of Ferdinand E. Marcos Human Rights Litigation, MDL 840, over which the transferee judge, Honorable Manuel L. Real, presided. A judgment was entered in Hilao's favor on February 3, 1995 (the MDL 840 Judgment). In it, the court retained jurisdiction. The MDL 840 Judgment was appealed and affirmed, Hilao v. Estate of Marcos, 103 F.3d 767 (9th Cir.1996); our mandate issued January 8, 1997. Before commencing the proceedings at issue here, Hilao registered the MDL 840 Judgment in the Northern District of Illinois in January 1997, the Republic of the Philippines in May 1997, and Singapore in February 2005. Hilao then registered the MDL 840 Judgment in the Northern District of Texas pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1963,¹ and filed a class action complaint April 8, 2005 against Revelstoke Investment Corporation, Inc., and six other corporations (collectively, "Revelstoke"), alleging that real properties to which Revelstoke holds title in Texas are beneficially owned by the Marcos Estate, and seeking to execute and foreclose on those properties in partial satisfaction of the MDL 840 Judgment.

On May 9, 2006, Revelstoke notified Hilao of its belief that the MDL 840 Judgment had expired pursuant to Hawai'i Revised Statute § 657-5² as applied through the Texas statute of limitations, Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code § 16.066(a), which is a borrowing statute.³ HRS § 657-5 provides that a judgment is presumed paid and discharged ten years after it is rendered, unless the judgment is extended within that ten-year period.

On June 5, Hilao filed a motion pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 69 in the MDL 840 action for a ten-year extension of the judgment. Hilao's memorandum in support explains that the issue had been raised in the Texas collection litigation and that, while Hilao believed HRS § 657-5 was not applicable to her federal judgment, she sought an extension out of an abundance of caution.

Revelstoke filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings in the Texas litigation on June 15, contending that the enforcement action was barred by the Hawai'i ten-year statute of limitations borrowed in the forum state by Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code § 16.066(a). On June 19, Hilao asked the Northern District of Texas to stay proceedings on Revelstoke's motion until after the District of Hawaii ruled on Hilao's request to extend the judgment. A stay was subsequently entered.

On June 22, Revelstoke moved to intervene in MDL 840 for the limited purpose of contesting Hilao's motion to extend. Hilao did not oppose intervention.

At a hearing held on June 26, Judge Real first granted Hilao's motion to extend the judgment. After ruling on that motion, the court considered, and denied, Revelstoke's request to intervene for the purpose of opposing the motion. Its reasons, stated from the bench, were that the court had no jurisdiction over the matters in Texas; that the Texas litigation had not been sent to the District of Hawaii under the multidistrict case; and that nothing that happens in the District of Hawaii can affect the judgment in Texas.

The same day the court signed a written order, in the form proposed by Hilao, granting the extension. The order was entered June 27, and finds that the MDL 840 Judgment was not final until issuance of the Ninth Circuit mandate on January 8, 1997; HRS § 657-5 only applies to "domestic" judgments and federal court judgments have no expiration date; application of HRS § 657-5 to federal court judgments on federal causes of action would be barred by the Supremacy Clause; and alternatively, even if HRS § 657-5 were applicable, good cause exists to grant an extension to January 8, 2007 given Marcos's pattern and practice of secreting assets.

Revelstoke then moved to intervene for the limited purpose of appealing the district court's extension order. The court denied this motion in a written order that states: "This matter rests in the jurisdiction of the Texas litigation."

Revelstoke filed a timely notice of appeal from the district court's orders denying intervention and granting the extension.

II

Intervention is governed by Fed. R. Civ. Proc. 24(a) and (b). To intervene as of right pursuant to Rule 24(a), an applicant must show that "(1) it has a significant protectable interest relating to the property or transaction that is the subject of the action; (2) the disposition of the action may, as a practical matter, impair or impede the applicant's ability to protect its interest; (3) the application is timely; and (4) the existing parties may not adequately represent the applicant's interest." S. Cal. Edison Co. v. Lynch, 307 F.3d 794, 802 (9th Cir.2002) (quoting United States v. City of Los Angeles, 288 F.3d 391, 397 (9th Cir.2002) (quoting Donnelly v. Glickman, 159 F.3d 405, 409 (9th Cir.1998) (internal quotation marks omitted))).

Only the first requirement is seriously disputed. For this requirement, we set out an "analytical framework" in City of Los Angeles, 288 F.3d at 398. As summarized in Southern California Edison:

An applicant has a "significant protectable interest" in an action if (1) it asserts an interest that is protected under some law, and (2) there is a "relationship" between its legally protected interest and the plaintiff's claims. The relationship requirement is met if the resolution of the plaintiff's claims actually will affect the applicant. The "interest" test is not a clear-cut or bright-line rule, because no specific legal or equitable interest need be established. Instead, the "interest" test directs courts to make a practical, threshold inquiry, and is primarily a practical guide to disposing of lawsuits by involving as many apparently concerned persons as is compatible with efficiency and due process.

307 F.3d at 803 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted.)

Revelstoke argues that it has an interest—avoiding the loss of its real property in the Texas action—that is protected under HRS § 657-5, which shields persons such as Revelstoke from efforts to enforce judgments that have expired. Further, in Revelstoke's view, the relational element is met because its motion in the Northern District of Texas seeks to vindicate this interest, while Hilao's motion for an extension in the District of Hawaii seeks to thwart it. Hilao counters that Revelstoke's interest is solely concerned with property in Texas that is the subject of a separate lawsuit unrelated to the subject matter of MDL 840—the torture, summary execution and disappearance of thousands of Filipinos at the hands of Ferdinand Marcos.

We review de novo the district court's denial of intervention as of right, Southern California Edison, 307 F.3d at 802, and are guided by the maxim that the requirements for intervention are broadly interpreted in favor of intervention. See, e.g., City of Los Angeles, 288 F.3d at 397.

We conclude that Revelstoke had the right to intervene on the record adduced. Hilao interposed no objection to intervention, which implicitly conceded the significance of a protectable interest related to her motion to extend.⁴ The district court ruled without reference to Rule 24(a) or the factors that frame the "significant interest" analysis. Of the reasons given—no jurisdiction over the matters in Texas, the Texas litigation had not been sent to the District of Hawaii, and nothing that happens in the District of Hawaii can affect the MDL 840 Judgment in Texas—the first two have no relevance to...