Opinion ID: 4544938
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Petition to Enroll a Foreign Decree

Text: We also hold that the chancery court correctly dismissed without prejudice Father’s petition to enroll the 2008 Texas decree. The United States Constitution requires that each state give full faith and credit to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. U.S. Const. art. IV, § 1. As one means of fulfilling this obligation, Tennessee enacted the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (“UEFJA”). Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 26-6-101 to -109. The UEFJA provides a “‘streamlined process,’” Estate of Bentley v. Byrd, 556 S.W.3d 211, 216-17 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2018) (quoting Baumann v. Williams, No. M2006-00962-COA-R3-CV, 2007 WL 3375365, at  (Tenn. Ct. App. Nov. 13, 2007)), with two distinct steps: (1) enrollment and (2) enforcement, Guseinov v. Synergy Ventures, Inc., 467 S.W.3d 920, 925 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2014) (citations omitted); Baumann, 2007 WL 3375365, at  (citing Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Law, ch. 5, topic 2, intro. cmt., at 277 (1971)). Enrollment, also known as recognition, “‘is a condition precedent to [a judgment’s] enforcement.’” Baumann, 2007 WL 3375365, at  (citation omitted). 13 That Rule 3(d) abolished the writ of error as a method of appeal generally is also reflected in the Compiler’s Notes to the Tennessee Code, which stated that section 27-6-101 “may be affected by T.R.A.P. 3(d).” Tenn. Code Ann. § 27-6-101, Compiler’s Notes (1980). 14 This reading would also result in section 27-6-101 remaining partially in force and effect, to the extent it provides for a writ of error appeal from general sessions court judgments, when section 16-3- 406 declares that “all laws in conflict” with the Rules of Appellate Procedure are “of no further force and effect” after July 1, 1979. Tenn. Code Ann. § 16-3-406 (emphasis added). We decline to adopt such a reading, as doing so would be inconsistent with the plain statutory language, frustrate legislative intent, and result in an absurdity. Brundage, 357 S.W.3d at 365; Fletcher, 951 S.W.2d at 381-82. - 19 - The requirements for enrollment are straightforward. “[F]oreign judgment” is defined as “any judgment, decree, or order of a court of the United States or of any other court which is entitled to full faith and credit in this state.” Tenn. Code Ann. § 26-6-103. Enrollment requires filing “[a] copy of any foreign judgment authenticated in accordance with the acts of [C]ongress or the statutes of this state . . .in the office of the clerk of any circuit or chancery court of this state.” Id. § 26-6-104(a). “The clerk shall treat the foreign judgment in the same manner as a judgment of a court of record of this state.” Id. § 26-6-104(b). “A judgment so filed has the same effect and is subject to the same procedures, defenses and proceedings for reopening, vacating, or staying as a judgment of a court of record of this state and may be enforced or satisfied in like manner.” Id. § 26-6-104(c). Here, Father failed to comply with these straightforward requirements for enrollment. Father never filed a copy of the Texas judgment in the clerk’s office. Instead, Father attached what he described as a copy of the Texas decree to his petition, but the copy was incomplete, lacking page five of the fifty-two-page decree. Father, therefore, failed to provide a copy of the decree he sought to enroll, and this omission deprived the chancery court of authority to act on Father’s request. See Griggs v. Gibson, 754 P.2d 783, 785 (Colo. App. 1988) (holding that trial court lacked authority to take any enforcement actions where the plaintiff failed to file an authenticated copy of the judgment and filed only an “Affidavit of Foreign Judgment”); Manley v. Manley, 591 P.2d 1042, 1043 (Colo. App. 1978) (holding that the court had no basis to take any enforcement actions where no copy of any judgment was filed); Love v. Moreland, 280 S.W.3d 334, 337 (Tex. App. 2008) (stating that an abstract of a judgment is not sufficient to satisfy the statutory requirement of filing an authenticated copy of the foreign judgment); Hull v. Buffalo Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass’n, 661 P.2d 1049, 1051 (Wyo. 1983) (discussing the UEFJA and defining copy to mean identical to and a reproduction of the original judgment). The requirement of filing an authenticated copy of the foreign judgment is a step designed to convert [the] foreign judgment into a domestic judgment capable of being enforced through the judicial processes of this state. Consequently, the filing of the authenticated copy of the foreign judgment is not a mere administrative step that may be waived; it is, rather, the equivalent of the entry of an original judgment by the domestic court and, thus, is a necessary condition precedent to the domestic enforcement of that [foreign] judgment. Griggs, 754 P.2d at 785 (emphasis added); see also Jolly v. Jolly, 130 S.W.3d 783, 78788 (Tenn. 2004) (holding that the chancery court erred by enforcing a decree that was not properly registered under the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (citing Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-5-2301 (Supp. 1999)); Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 36-5-2601 to -2603 (Supp. 1999)). - 20 - We emphasize that not every instance of noncompliance with the UEFJA will deprive a chancery court of subject matter jurisdiction. Summers v. Ryan, No. E2006-01757COA-R10-JV, 2007 WL 161037, at  (Tenn. Ct. App. Jan. 23, 2007). This case does not, however, involve mere omissions from a petition, like Summers. Here, Father failed to provide a complete copy of the foreign decree. 15 As such, Father failed to fulfill the first essential step necessary to invoke the jurisdiction conferred by the UEFJA.16 The chancery court correctly dismissed the matter without prejudice.