Pan Energy v. Martin, 890400

• Court: Supreme Court of Utah
• Citation: 813 P.2d 1142
• Docket Number: No. 890400,890400
• Parties: PAN ENERGY, a/k/a, Energy Catalyst Company, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Carl W. MARTIN, Defendant and Appellee.
• Decision Date: 24 May 1991

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813 P.2d 1142 PAN ENERGY, a/k/a, Energy Catalyst Company, Plaintiff and Appellant,
v.
Carl W. MARTIN, Defendant and Appellee. No. 890400. Supreme Court of Utah. May 24, 1991.

Michael J. Petro, Provo, for Pan Energy.

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Brenda L. Flanders, Alexander H. Walker, III, Kristin G. Brewer, Salt Lake City, for Martin.

STEWART, Justice:

Plaintiff Pan Energy Company appeals a trial court's order dismissing an action to enforce a foreign judgment. We reverse.

I. FACTS

The facts are essentially undisputed. In September 1982, Pan Energy Company obtained a judgment against Carl Martin in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma (Oklahoma court). In August 1987, Pan Energy filed or registered the Oklahoma judgment in the Fourth Judicial District Court of Utah pursuant to Utah Code Ann. §§ 78-22a-1 to -8 (1987) (the Utah Foreign Judgment Act). Utah Code Ann. § 78-22a-2(2) (1987) provides:

A copy of a foreign judgment authenticated in accordance with an appropriate act of Congress or an appropriate act of Utah may be filed with the county clerk of any county in Utah. The clerk of the district court shall treat the foreign judgment in all respects as a judgment of a district court of Utah. A judgment filed under this chapter has the same effect and is subject to the same procedures, defenses, and proceedings for reopening, vacating, setting aside, or staying, as a judgment of a district court of this state and is subject to enforcement and satisfaction in like manner.

Before enactment of the Foreign Judgment Act, the traditional method of enforcing a foreign judgment was to file an action on the judgment in a Utah court and transmute it to a Utah judgment. The Utah Foreign Judgment Act was intended to simplify the enforcement of foreign judgments by sparing the judgment holder the burden of further litigation and allowing enforcement in this state by the simple expedient of filing the judgment with a county clerk in Utah. The judgment holder still has the option, however, to commence an enforcement action under the older, traditional approach. See Utah Code Ann. § 78-22a-6 (1987).

Based on a stipulation between the parties, the Utah district court ordered a stay of execution until the Oklahoma federal district court ruled on Martin's motion to extinguish the Oklahoma judgment. Oklahoma provides by statute that judgments not executed within five years after the date of judgment become unenforceable. See Okla.Stat.Ann. tit. 12, § 735 (West 1988) (dormancy statute). In July 1988, the Oklahoma federal district court ruled that the five-year period for the enforcement of judgments in Oklahoma had lapsed and that the Oklahoma judgment was therefore "dormant." However, the court did not rule that the Oklahoma judgment was extinguished. Subsequently, the Utah district court refused to allow enforcement of the foreign judgment on the ground that a foreign judgment that is unenforceable in the rendering state is also unenforceable in Utah.

The following issues are raised on this appeal: (1) Under the Utah Foreign Judgment Act, is the period for enforcement of a foreign judgment governed by Utah's statute of limitations? (2) Does Utah Code Ann. § 78-12-45 (1987) (the borrowing statute) require application of the rendering state's statute of limitations for enforcement of a foreign judgment registered in Utah? (3) Must a Utah court hold an Oklahoma judgment that is filed in Utah and subsequently held to be dormant by an Oklahoma court unenforceable under the "full faith and credit" clause of the United States Constitution? (4) Should comity require a Utah court to apply a foreign statute of limitations to the enforcement of a foreign judgment in Utah?

II. THE UTAH FOREIGN JUDGMENT ACT

The Utah Foreign Judgment Act provides a mechanism for the enforcement of a foreign judgment in Utah. Utah Code Ann. § 78-22a-2(2) (1987) provides in part:

The clerk of the district court shall treat the foreign judgment in all respects as a judgment of a district court of Utah. A

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judgment filed under this chapter has the same effect and is subject to the same procedures, defenses, and proceedings for reopening, vacating, setting aside, or staying, as a judgment of a district court of this state and is subject to enforcement and satisfaction in like manner.

(Emphasis added.) This statute requires foreign judgments to be treated as if they were local judgments once they have been filed with the clerk of a district court. Once filed, the foreign judgment is subject to the same procedures to attack or enforce it as a Utah judgment. Thus, because foreign judgments properly filed in Utah essentially become Utah judgments under the Utah Foreign Judgment Act, the Utah statute of limitations applies to the enforcement of those judgments in Utah.

That interpretation is consistent with the approach taken by federal courts interpreting a similar federal registration statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1963 (1988). Section 1963 requires that federal district courts give foreign judgments the same effect as those courts give their own judgments. Federal courts have construed that statute as creating a new judgment in the registering court, thus requiring the application of the local statute of limitations to that judgment. See Stanford v. Utley, 341 F.2d 265, 268 (8th Cir.1965); United States v. Palmer, 609 F.Supp. 544, 548 (E.D.Tenn.1985); Dichter v. Disco Corp., 606 F.Supp. 721, 724 (S.D.Ohio 1984); Anderson v. Tucker, 68 F.R.D. 461, 463 (D.Conn.1975); Juneau Spruce Corp. v. International Longshoremen's & Warehousemen's Union, 128 F.Supp. 715, 717 (N.D.Cal.1955). But see Juneau Spruce Corp. v. International Longshoremen's & Warehousemen's...