ENRIQUE TETTAMANTI AND MARIA CRISTINA CALVO, APPELLANTS,
v.
OPCION SOCIEDAD ANONIMA, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 2011-07-20
No. 3D11-333
Before RAMIREZ, SALTER, and EMAS, JJ.
67 So. 3d 356 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (2011) Positive Treatment
Cited by 1 case

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Synopsis

Tettamanti and Calvo appealed the denial of their motion to vacate a Florida court's recognition of an Argentine money judgment against them. The court affirmed, holding that post-recognition collateral attacks should ordinarily be directed to the foreign court rather than the Florida court, and that appellants failed to present any definitive ruling precluding continued recognition and enforcement.


Holding

The court affirmed the denial of the motion to vacate. Post-recognition collateral attacks on foreign judgments should ordinarily be directed to the foreign court, not the Florida court. The Argentine court's recent orders did not instruct Opción to stop Florida enforcement. Fraud claims relating to the merits of the underlying Argentine case must be brought in Argentina. The currency conversion from pesos to dollars was proper because the original debt was incurred in U.S. dollars and had already been affirmed by this court.


Headnotes

[1] A Florida court, after granting recognition to a foreign money judgment, should not entertain collateral attacks on the judgment that should be directed to the foreign co…

[2] A Florida court may grant recognition to a foreign money judgment if it is final, conclusive, and enforceable where rendered, even if an appeal is pending.

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Key Quotes

“Once recognition has been granted, the judgment is a Florida judgment and may be enforced in the same manner as any other Florida money judgment. The important distinction is that a post-recognition collateral attack on the judgment ordinarily should be directed to the foreign court rather than the Florida court.”

Establishes the fundamental principle that post-recognition attacks should go to the foreign court, not Florida

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Facts & Procedural History

Opción S.A. obtained a final judgment in Argentina in 2007 against Tettamanti and Calvo on a promissory note. The Florida circuit court recognized the…

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Opinion of the Court
SALTER, J.

SALTER, J.

Enrique Tettamanti and Maria Cristina Calvo appeal a circuit court order denying *357their motion to vacate an earlier order granting recognition to an Argentine money judgment against them. Appellee, Op-cion S.A., was the plaintiff in Argentina (seeking collection of a promissory note issued by Tettamanti and Calvo) and is now the judgment creditor in both Argentina and Florida.

Tettamanti and Calvo previously and unsuccessfully appealed the order granting recognition to the final judgment entered in Argentina in 2007.1 While that appeal was pending, they obtained from the Florida circuit court a stay of enforcement of that final judgment. Opción appealed the stay, and we vacated it.2 In this third bite at the same apple, Tettamanti and Calvo moved the Florida circuit court to vacate the recognition judgment under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.540 on the basis of a 2010 Argentine court order and letters rogatory (filed with the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida) allegedly establishing that the underlying lawsuit in Argentina was not yet concluded. The Florida circuit court denied that motion, and this appeal followed. Analysis

As in the prior appeals involving these parties, Florida’s Uniform Out-of-Country Foreign Money-Judgment Recognition Act, sections 55.601-607, Florida Statutes (2008), is controlling. Recognition may be granted for a “judgment of a foreign state granting or denying recovery of a sum of money, other than a judgment for taxes, a fine, or other penalty,”3 so long as the judgment is “final and conclusive and enforceable where rendered, even though an appeal therefrom is pending or is subject to appeal,”4 and provided the Florida court does not find grounds for nonrecognition under sections 55.605 or 55.6055.5

Once recognition has been granted, the judgment is a Florida judgment and may be enforced in the same manner as any other Florida money judgment. The important distinction is that a post-recognition collateral attack on the judgment ordinarily should be directed to the foreign court rather than the Florida court. The collateral attacks presented by Tettamanti and Calvo in Florida in this most recent challenge claimed: (1) the Argentine judgment is not really final or enforceable in Argentina, based on more recent pronouncements by the Argentine court; (2) the judgments in both jurisdictions were based on fraud by Opción; and (8) the Florida judgment should not have converted the Argentine judgment debt from Argentine pesos to U.S. dollars at a rate of one to one.

Regarding the first of these arguments, the certified translations of the more recent court orders in Argentina and the letters rogatory issued by the court there do not instruct Opción to stop its Florida enforcement efforts. We appreciate the care a court in one country may take to avoid any inference of interference with the jurisdiction and discretion of a court in another country,6 but the same *358considerations of international comity do not in any way limit a presiding court’s power to control a litigant seeking relief before it. In the underlying case in Argentina, Opción is the plaintiff and judgment creditor. If it is the conclusion of the court in Argentina that Opción has no right to execute upon the Argentine judgment, or that the judgment there is not conclusive or final, the Argentine court can simply direct Opción to take no action in Florida to enforce the recognition judgment here. Alternatively, the Argentine court can issue a clear stay order7 and Tettamanti and Calvo can ask the Florida trial court to recognize that order as a matter of common law comity.8

Tettamanti’s and Calvo’s second argument is that the Florida court should have vacated the recognition order based on fraud and misconduct by Opción. If the alleged fraud and misconduct consisted of forging or altering the judgment entered in Argentina in the course of seeking recognition in Florida, for example, a Florida court would certainly have authority to grant relief under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.540(b). But in this case, Tet-tamanti and Calvo are attempting to re-raise issues (alleged payments to another entity for the account of Opción, for example) resolved adversely to them by the court in Argentina. Any attempt to vacate the findings on those points on the basis of alleged fraud should be directed to that court, not the Florida court.

Finally, Tettamanti and Calvo’s third argument — that the domesticated judgment should have been denominated in Argentine pesos rather than U.S. dollars — has already been adjudicated and rejected by this Court in the prior appeals. It is undisputed that the original indebtedness was incurred in U.S. dollars. The loan agreement required repayment in that currency. The Argentine judgment converted the debt from $236,900 to 236,-900 Argentine pesos because the then-prevailing and applicable conversion rate was one to one, as set forth in the Argentine judgment. In converting the recognized judgment into a Florida judgment, the circuit court properly restored the judgment debt to its original currency.9 As noted, this Court affirmed the order of recognition, including that provision, in 2009.

*359 Conclusion

Tettamanti and Calvo have not raised any new argument or provided any definitive ruling by the Argentine court that precludes continued recognition and enforcement of the 2007 judgment in Florida. The Florida court is not a replacement or alternative forum for all post-judgment matters. In this case, proceedings to alter, amend, or vacate the judgment should be determined in the underlying case in Argentina.

Affirmed.


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