Opinion ID: 2604080
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: The Stay of Litigation Against Allied:

Text: Next, we will address Allied's claim that this action against Allied should have been stayed because of the full faith and credit clause of the United States Constitution and because of principles of comity, and because Allied's rehabilitator, the Insurance Commissioner of Indiana, was an indispensable party to the action. Both Wyoming and Indiana have adopted the uniform insurers' liquidation act, found at § 26-28-101, et seq., W.S. 1977. The relevant portion of the uniform act provides in part: During the pendency of any delinquency proceedings in this or any reciprocal state, no action or proceeding in the nature of an attachment, garnishment or execution shall be commenced or maintained in the courts of this state against any delinquent insurer or its assets. Section 26-28-118, W.S. 1977. We agree with Allied that under principles of comity and under the full faith and credit clause of the United States Constitution, the Wyoming courts should adhere to the provisions and restrictions contained in the uniform act. A careful reading of the above-quoted statute reveals that the uniform act enjoins the enforcement of a judgment through attachment, garnishment or execution proceedings. The act does not, however, prohibit a party from maintaining an action to obtain a judgment, or prohibit a court from entering a judgment. The act only prohibits actions to enforce or collect on a judgment. The receivership proceeding in Indiana is more properly an issue affecting the collectability and enforceability of any Wyoming judgment. The uniform act does not contemplate the discontinuance of an action to obtain a judgment underway in Wyoming. We find that the trial court's action was entirely consistent with the uniform act. Allied's next contention that Indiana's Insurance Commissioner was an indispensable party to this action also fails. Under Rule 19(a), W.R.C.P., [a] person who is subject to service of process shall be joined as a party in the action   . Thus, in order to be an indispensable party, that party must be subject to service of process. Allied has not shown that the Indiana Insurance Commissioner was subject to service of process in Wyoming, and, in fact, asserts that the Commissioner is beyond the jurisdiction of the Wyoming court. Therefore, the Commissioner cannot be an indispensable party to this action, and the trial court did not err in refusing to make the Commissioner a party. This litigation was commenced long before Allied became involved in rehabilitation proceedings in Indiana, and the Wyoming court was entitled to conclude this case without involving the Indiana Insurance Commissioner unless the receiver intervened to assist in actively concluding the pending trial by liability determination. We do not understand the asserted differential between Allied that then and now continues as a totally involved litigant and the receiver or conservator which never entered a litigative appearance in the continuing course of this lawsuit.