Opinion ID: 2616682
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Validity of Florida Judgment

Text: The husband argues that the Florida judgment was void and unenforceable under W.R.C.P. 60(b)(4) [3] and that the district court erred by granting a summary judgment to the wife. He contends that, because the Florida court violated his due process rights when it granted relief to the wife which she had not requested in any of her pleadings, the Florida judgment was void and was not entitled to be accorded full faith and credit in Wyoming. Under article IV, section 1, of the United States Constitution, the final judgments and public acts of one state must be given full faith and credit in every other state. The United States Supreme Court has held that full faith and credit generally requires every State to give a judgment at least the res judicata effect which the judgment would be accorded in the State which rendered it. A foreign judgment will be enforced to its full extent regardless of any errors or irregularities it may contain. The full faith and credit clause generally protects the judgment of a court of a sister state against collateral attacks, unless proper grounds for the collateral attack can be established. Marworth, Inc. v. McGuire, 810 P.2d 653, 655-56 (Colo.1991) (en banc) (quoting Durfee v. Duke, 375 U.S. 106, 109, 84 S.Ct. 242, 244, 11 L.Ed.2d 186 (1963)) (citations omitted). Wyoming implemented the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the United States Constitution [4] by adopting the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act. WYO.STAT. §§ 1-17-701 to -707 (1988). See generally Salmeri v. Salmeri, 554 P.2d 1244 (Wyo.1976). A judgment is void if the rendering court acted in a manner inconsistent with due process [of law]. JW v. State, ex rel. Laramie County Department of Public Assistance and Social Services (In re WM), 778 P.2d 1106, 1110 (Wyo.1989). A judgment which was obtained in violation of due process of law is not entitled to have full faith and credit. 50 C.J.S. Judgments § 889 at 472 (1947). See also World-Wide Volkswagen Corporation v. Woodson, 444 U.S. 286, 291, 100 S.Ct. 559, 564, 62 L.Ed.2d 490 (1980). It is basic that, before a property interest can be terminated, except in emergency situations, due process must be afforded to litigants in the form of notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard. Lawrence-Allison and Associates West, Inc. v. Archer, 767 P.2d 989, 997 (Wyo.1989) (emphasis in original). The husband presented his argument to the Florida courts that the pleadings did not properly request the relief which had been granted to the wife. The Florida courts decided against him. Under the Full Faith and Credit Clause, a foreign judgment is entitled to be accorded the same validity and effect in a sister state as it would have in the rendering state. Bell Atlantic Tricon Leasing Corporation v. Johnnie's Garbage Service, Inc., 113 N.C.App. 476, 439 S.E.2d 221, 223 (1994). When parties are prohibited from reasserting issues in the rendering state, they are also barred from asserting those issues in a sister state. Cf. Osborn v. Ashland County Board of Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services, 979 F.2d 1131, 1131-35 (6th Cir.1992) (per curiam) (holding that a federal court must not consider a due process issue which had previously been decided by a state court). Under Florida law, the judicial doctrine of collateral estoppel prohibits relitigation of an issue where the parties and issues are identical and where a particular matter has been fully litigated and determined in a prior litigation which has resulted in a final decision in a court of competent jurisdiction. Prudential Insurance Company of America v. Turkal, 528 So.2d 487, 488 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App. 1988) (per curiam). Under this rule, the parties would be barred from relitigating the issue in Florida as to whether the pleadings requested the relief which had been granted to the wife. The husband and the wife were parties in both actions. The issue which the husband asserts in the Wyoming action is exactly the same issue which he presented to the Florida courts, and the Florida district court of appeal, which was a court of competent jurisdiction, entered a final judgment on the issue. The Wyoming district court properly gave full faith and credit to the Florida judgment.