THE COMMUNITY BUILDERS, INC., FORMERLY GREATER BOSTON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, INC., STEPHEN H. ANTHONY, JONATHAN M. KEYES AND CHRISTOPHER L. NOBLE, AS TRUSTEES OF THE COMMUNITY BUILDERS CHARITABLE TRUST, PETITIONERS,
v.
INDIAN MOTORCYCLE ASSOCIATES, INC., AND UPPER STATE STREET IMB CORPORATION, AS GENERAL PARTNERS OF INDIAN MOTORCYCLE ASSOCIATES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, MERWIN H. RUBIN, H. JOEL RAHN AND UPPER STATE STREET COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, RESPONDENTS
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The court held that Florida should not grant greater execution rights on a recorded foreign judgment than are available in the rendering state, consistent with the Full Faith and Credit Clause.
[1] A judgment creditor is not entitled to greater rights of execution in a sister state than are afforded in the state where the judgment was rendered.
[2] The Full Faith and Credit Clause requires that a judgment rendered in one state be given the same effect in another state as it has in the rendering state.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligencePetitioners recorded a Massachusetts judgment in Florida and sought execution. Respondents appealed the underlying Massachusetts judgment, which under…
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SCHWARTZ, Chief Judge.
The petitioners are the holders of a Massachusetts judgment against the respondents, which was duly recorded in Florida under the Florida Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, sections 55.501-509, Florida Statutes (1993). They seek certiorari review of an order staying execution on the recorded judgment, without the posting of a superse-deas bond, until the disposition of a pending appeal of the underlying judgment in Massachusetts. The basis for the ruling was that under Massachusetts law, the appeal itself similarly effects a stay of execution without supersedeas. We agree with that determination and therefore deny certiorari.
The order under review succinctly and correctly both states and resolves the issue:
Plaintiffs obtained a judgment against defendants in Massachusetts in July, 1993. The defendants appealed that judgment in August, 1993. One year later, in August, 1994, the plaintiffs recorded their judgment with the Clerk of the Dade County Court and instituted garnishment proceedings.
A defendant filed his motion for stay. His motion and affidavit represent to this Court that Rule 62(d), Massachusetts Rules of Civil Procedure provides for an automatic stay of a judgment pending appeal, without a supersedeas bond.
SCG Travel Inc. v. Westminster Financial Corp., 583 So. 2d 723 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991) argues that “... an unconditional stay might deprive the rights of execution granted in the rendering state”. These plaintiffs do not have rights of execution in Massachusetts. It would be inconsistent with the Full Faith and Credit Clause, Art. IV, section 1, U.S. Const., as implemented through 28 U.S.C., section 1738, for Florida to grant plaintiffs greater rights of execution than they have in Massachusetts.
Therefore, it is
ORDERED and ADJUDGED,
That all execution is stayed as to all defendants pending a decision by the Massachusetts Court and all property is to be returned to defendants which may have been executed, [e.o.]
We entirely agree.
The full faith and credit clause of the United States Constitution provides that the judgments of the courts of each state are given the same — that is, neither more nor less — faith, credit and effect in sibling states as the state which renders them. Aldrich v. Aldrich, 378 U.S. 540, 542, 84 S.Ct. 1687, 1688, 12 L.Ed.2d 1020, 1022 (1964); Johnson v. Muelberger, 340 U.S. 581, 71 S.Ct. 474, 95 L.Ed. 552 (1951); Coe v. Coe, 334 U.S. 378, 68 S.Ct. 1094, 92 L.Ed. 1451 (1948); New York ex. rel. Halvey v. Halvey, 330 U.S. 610, 67 S.Ct. 903, 91 L.Ed. 1133 (1947); Milwaukee County v. M.E. White Co., 296 U.S. 268, 56 S.Ct. 229, 80 L.Ed. 220 (1935). As the trial judge observed, this principle means that the Massachusetts judgment creditor cannot be permitted to levy on the defendant’s Florida assets in circumstances, like these, in which he is precluded from executing upon Massachusetts property. The authorities — although ancient, if not prehistoric — are both well reasoned and unanimous in so holding. The law is that:
[Wjhere proceedings upon a judgment are stayed for a certain period by the law of the forum where it is obtained, the judgment creditor will not be allowed, during such period, to proceed in another jurisdiction, in an action founded upon such judgment, the object of which is to obtain its satisfaction by applying thereto the assets of his debtor within this latter jurisdiction.
Certiorari denied.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Milwaukee Cnty. v. M. E. White Co., 296 U.S. 268 (U.S. 1935)
- NEW York ex rel. Halvey v. Halvey, 330 U.S. 610 (U.S. 1947)
- Johnson v. Muelberger, 340 U.S. 581 (U.S. 1951)
- COE v. COE, 334 U.S. 378 (U.S. 1948)
- United States v. Kesterson, 296 U.S. 299 (U.S. 1935)
- Aldrich v. Aldrich, 378 U.S. 540 (U.S. 1964)
- SCG Travel, Inc. v. Westminster Fin. Corp., 583 So. 2d 723 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991)
- Edmundson v. Tennessee ex rel. Battle, 396 U.S. 844 (U.S. 1969)
- Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade v. Attorney General of the United States, 396 U.S. 844 (U.S. 1969)