A.J. Spagnol Lumber Co., Inc. v. Trauger
| Decision Date | 01 December 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 81-624,81-624 |
| Parties | A.J. SPAGNOL LUMBER COMPANY, INC., Appellant, v. Carl R. TRAUGER and Rosann L. Trauger, Appellees. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Robert B. Dunckel of Adler, Tolar & Adler, Fort Lauderdale, for appellant.
Julian R. Benjamin of Therrel, Baisden, Stanton, Wood & Setlin, Miami, for appellees.
Appellant/creditor, a Pennsylvania corporation, seeks reversal of a judgment on the pleadings entered by the trial court in favor of appellees/debtors, now Florida residents based on the application of section 55.05, Florida Statutes (1977). 1
Appellant's amended complaint 2 alleged that it was a supplier of building materials to appellees, who were the principals of a corporate builder in Pennsylvania; that it loaned appellees $15,000 in 1967 for which appellees executed and delivered their promissory note; and that when appellees failed to pay the note, appellant obtained a judgment against them in 1971 for the principal and interest. It further alleged that immediately prior to the judgment, appellees removed themselves from Pennsylvania to Puerto Rico, where they concealed themselves; and that after being located there by appellant, they removed themselves to Florida where they fraudulently concealed themselves.
Attached to the amended complaint were a copy of the promissory note and an exemplified copy of the docket of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, which established the entry of a cognovit judgment in 1971 by the prothonotary of that county. 3 After denial of their motion to dismiss, appellees filed their answer, raising the affirmative defense that the "confession judgment" was obtained without personal service upon them and was null and void pursuant to section 55.05. The trial court entered judgment on the pleadings in their favor based upon the foregoing affirmative defense.
There is no question about the legislature's intent in the enactment of the present version of section 55.05. The title of Chapter 59-321, Laws of Florida expressly recites in part:
AN ACT amending Section 55.05, Florida Statutes, relating to confession of judgments by extending the coverage of said section to foreign judgments.
The question is whether the legislature can constitutionally eviscerate a foreign cognovit judgment by that section. We hold that it cannot and reverse the trial court's judgment.
Our action is not lightly taken (although our research reveals a dearth of cases in Florida such as the present since 1959 when the foregoing amendment was enacted) because of our duty as recited in A.B.A. Industries v. City of Pinellas Park, 366 So.2d 761, 763 (Fla.1979).
When construing statutes, the courts must assume that the Legislature intended to enact an effective law. Statutes are presumptively valid and constitutional, and will be given effect if possible. All doubts will be resolved in favor of constitutionality. Bonvento v. Bd. of Public Instruction of Palm Beach County, 194 So.2d 605 (Fla.1967). Acts of the Legislature are presumed valid and an act will not be declared unconstitutional unless it is determined to be invalid beyond a reasonable doubt. Knight and Wall Co. v. Bryant, 178 So.2d 5 (Fla.1965), cert. denied, 383 U.S. 958, 86 S.Ct. 1223, 16 L.Ed.2d 301 (1966).
Nevertheless, it is our conclusion that the statute, if applied in accordance with its title, (as opposed to a literal application of the body of the act to cases that do not involve foreign judgments), is violative of Art. IV, § 1, United States Constitution. 4 The legislature's plain intent was in disregard of the supreme court's constitutional admonition in United Mercantile Agencies v. Bissonnette, 19 So.2d 466, 467 (Fla.1944) which said:
It is held in this jurisdiction that a judgment conclusive in a sister state where rendered is conclusive here, under the "full faith and credit clause" of the Federal Constitution, Art. 4, § 1, and applicable Federal Statutes. The fact that a judgment of a sister state is of a character or in a form which would not be permissible in a domestic judgment is not of itself a valid ground for refusing it recognition. In many states entry of judgments by confession without service of process is permissible. See 31 Am.Jur. pp. 109, 114, Secs. 465, 478. A judgment entered under the laws of a sister state permitting such entry of judgment, therefore, will not be denied enforcement in this jurisdiction merely because by our law the entry of such a judgment by our own courts would be unlawful.
See also Carroll v. Gore, 106 Fla. 582, 143 So. 633 (1932) and Pearson v. Friedman, 112 So.2d 894 (Fla. 3d DCA 1959). It also disregarded a number of governing decisions of the United States Supreme Court rendered prior thereto; 5 and its action is inconsistent with subsequent governing decisions rendered by that court in 1972. 6
Based upon the decisions of the United States Supreme Court--and in light of the facts of this case which show all of the contacts to be in Pennsylvania 7 and Florida's apparent sole interest to be that of appellees' place of financial refuge--we reverse and remand.
1 Section 55.05 provides:
All powers of attorney for confessing or suffering judgment to pass by default or otherwise, and all general releases of error, heretofore made or to be made hereafter by any person whatsoever within or without this state, before such action brought, shall be absolutely null and void.
2 The original complaint was filed in 1977.
3 The note provided:
And to secure the payment of said amount we hereby authorize, irrevocably, any attorney of any Court of Record, to appear for us in such Court; in term time or vacation, at any time hereafter, and confess a judgment, without process, in favor of the holder of this Note...
Exhibit C attached to the amended complaint cited to read as follows:
It shall be the duty of the prothonotary of any cout [sic] of record, within this Commonwealth, on the application of any person being the original holder (or assignee of such holder) of a note, bond, or other instrument of writing, in which judgment is confessed, or containing a warrant for an attorney at law, or other person to confess judgment, to enter judgment against the person or persons, who executed the same for the amount, which, from the face of the instrument, may appear to be due, without the agency of an attorney, or declaration filed, with such stay of execution as may therein be mentioned, for the fee of one dollar, to be paid by the defendant; particularly entering on his docket the date and tenor of the instrument of writing, on which the judgment may be founded, which shall have the same force and effect, as if a declaration had been filed, and judgment confessed by an attorney, or judgment obtained in open court, and in term time; and the defendant shall not be compelled to pay any costs, or fee to the plaintiff's attorney, when judgment is entered on any instrument or writing as aforesaid.
4 Art. IV, § 1 provides:
Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records and Judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.
See also 28 U.S.C.A. § 1738 which implements the full faith and credit clause, providing:
The Acts of the legislature of any State, Territory, or Possession of the United States, or copies thereof, shall be authenticated by affixing the seal of such State, Territory or Possession thereto.
The records and judicial proceedings of any court of any such State, Territory or Possession, or copies thereof, shall be proved or admitted in other courts within the United States and its Territories and Possessions by the attestation of the clerk and seal of the court annexed, if a seal exists, together with a certificate of a judge of the court that the said attestation is in proper form.
Such Acts, records and judicial proceedings or copies thereof, so authenticated, shall have the same full faith and credit in every court within the United States and its Territories and Possessions as they have by law or usage in the courts of such State, Territory or Possession from which they are taken. June 25, 1948, c. 646, 62 Stat. 947.
5 Morris v. Jones, 329 U.S. 545, 547, 67 S.Ct. 451, 454, 91 L.Ed. 488, 494 (1947) held:
The Full Faith and Credit Clause and the statute which implements it (R.S. § 905, 28 U.S.C. § 687, 28 U.S.C.A. § 687) require the judgments of the courts of one State to be given the same faith and credit in another State as they have by law or usage in the courts of the State rendering them.
Milliken v. Meyer, 311 U.S. 457, 462, 61 S.Ct. 339, 342, 85 L.Ed. 278, 282 (1940) said:
Where a judgment rendered in one state is challenged in another, a want of jurisdiction over either the person or the subject matter is of course open to inquiry. Grover & Baker Sewing Machine Co. v. Radcliffe, 137 U.S. 287, 11 S.Ct. 92, 34 L.Ed. 670; Adam v. Saenger, 303 U.S. 59, 58 S.Ct. 454, 82 L.Ed. 649. But if the judgment on its face appears to be a "record of a court of general jurisdiction, such jurisdiction over the cause and the parties is to be presumed unless disproved by extrinsic evidence, or by the record itself." Adam v. Saenger, supra, 303 U.S. at page 62, 58 S.Ct. at page 456, 82 L.Ed. 649. In such case the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution precludes any inquiry into the merits of the cause of action, the logic or consistency of the decision, or the validity of the legal principles on which the judgment is based. Fauntleroy v. Lum, 210 U.S. 230, 28 S.Ct. 641, 52 L.Ed. 1039; Roche v. McDonald, 275 U.S. 449, 48 S.Ct. 142, 72 L.Ed. 365, 53 A.L.R. 1141; Titus v. Wallick, ...
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Trauger v. A.J. Spagnol Lumber Co., Inc., 63130
...for appellee. OVERTON, Justice. This is an appeal from the decision of the Fourth District Court of Appeal in A.J. Spagnol Lumber Co. v. Trauger, 423 So.2d 956 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982), which held that section 55.05, Florida Statutes (1977), 1 violates the full faith and credit clause of the Uni......