Opinion ID: 718350
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: 2 The facts are undisputed. In 1982, Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) sued the defendants in federal district court to enforce the defendants' guarantees that they would pay a debt of more than $2.2 million which was owed to ARCO. Jurisdiction was based solely on diversity of citizenship. 3 On June 4, 1984, the district court (Cohn, J.) held a hearing on a motion for summary judgment filed by ARCO. In that hearing, the court announced from the bench that it would grant ARCO's motion, and instructed ARCO's attorneys to draft an appropriate order. The court also discussed damages, but it stated that, if the parties could not agree on the precise amount of damages, it would hold another hearing. 4 On June 25, 1984, the district court entered a written order granting summary judgment to ARCO and itemizing the damages owed, including interest and attorney's fees. Evidently, the parties had agreed on the final amount. In its order, however, the district court used the date of June 4 as an accrual date for purposes of calculating interest. 5 On June 22, 1994, almost ten years to the day after the district court had entered that written order, ARCO returned to court and filed suit to extend the life of the judgment against the defendants, and the case was assigned to Judge Cohn. ARCO had yet to collect the judgment fully, although the late Mr. Rinaldi's estate had made some payments to ARCO, and a settlement agreement between the parties had discharged a portion of the debt. More than $4.2 million remained owing to ARCO, including more than $2.6 million in unpaid interest that had accrued under 28 U.S.C. § 1691. 6 The defendants countered by contending that ARCO had failed to timely file, under the Michigan statute of limitations, its suit to extend the life of the 1984 judgment. The statute of limitations of the forum state applies in federal diversity cases pursuant to Walker v. Armco Steel Corp., 446 U.S. 740, 753, 100 S.Ct. 1978, 1986, 64 L.Ed.2d 659 (1980). The Michigan statute provides that judgment renewal actions like ARCO's must be brought within ten years from the time of the rendition of the judgment. Mich.Comp.Laws Ann. § 600.5809(3) (West 1987) (emphasis added). 7 The defendants contended below (as they do in this appeal) that the district court rendered its judgment against them on June 4, 1984, when it announced from the bench that it would grant ARCO's motion for summary judgment, and not on June 25, 1984, when the district court issued its written order granting summary judgment to ARCO. 8 The district court, on cross-motions for summary judgment, granted ARCO's motion and denied the defendants' motion. The court noted that, under both the Walker case and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 69(a), which dictates the procedure for enforcing money judgments in federal courts, it was bound to apply the Michigan statute of limitations. After reviewing the Michigan statute, the court below rejected the defendants' argument that it rendered judgment for ARCO on June 4, as opposed to June 25. Relying on Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 58, which mandates that federal court judgments be set forth on a separate document apart from opinions and memoranda, 1 the district court stated that [a] federal court judgment does not exist until it is put in writing. Thus, the court below continued, it could not have rendered a judgment for ARCO until it put its decision in writing on June 25, 1984. The court then held that, because ARCO had filed suit in the instant case on June 22, 1994, it had satisfied Michigan's ten-year statute of limitations. The defendants timely appealed.