Opinion ID: 2372843
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the issue of jurisdiction is res judicata before the connecticut court

Text: On June 19, 1980, the plaintiff filed an action to enforce her 1972 Nevada judgment in Connecticut pursuant to General Statutes §§ 46b-70 through 46b-75, the Enforcement of Foreign Matrimonial Judgments Act. [3] On September 8, 1980, in a separate action in Connecticut, the plaintiff brought suit on the 1979 Nevada judgment and also brought suit in a second count for current support. The defendant here in Connecticut contested both actions on the Nevada judgments on the basis that the state of Nevada had no jurisdiction over him in 1971. The trial court examined the circumstances surrounding the 1971 divorce action and found that Nevada lacked personal jurisdiction over the defendant. Thus, the court held, the 1972 and 1979 Nevada judgments were void. The trial court erred, however, because the issue of jurisdiction was fully and fairly litigated in the 1972 Nevada proceedings. The defendant is barred from raising it anew in these collateral proceedings. The full faith and credit clause, article IV, § 1 of the United States constitution, requires that judgments of the courts of each state be given the same faith, credit, and effect in sister states as they have by law or custom in the courts of the state rendering them. Durfee v. Duke, 375 U.S. 106, 109, 84 S. Ct. 242, 11 L. Ed. 2d 186 (1963); Williams v. North Carolina, 325 U.S. 226, 228, 65 S. Ct. 1092, 89 L. Ed. 1577 (1945); Milliken v. Meyer, 311 U.S. 457, 462, 61 S. Ct. 339, 85 L. Ed. 278 (1940); Stoll v. Gottlieb, 305 U.S. 165, 170, 59 S. Ct. 134, 83 L. Ed. 104 (1938); Milwaukee County v. M. E. White Co., 296 U.S 268, 273, 56 S. Ct. 229, 80 L. Ed. 220 (1935); Roche v. McDonald, 275 U.S. 449, 451, 48 S. Ct. 142, 72 L. Ed. 365 (1928). The United States Supreme Court has stated that recovery upon a judgment may be resisted if the court that rendered it was without jurisdiction. Milwaukee County v. M. E. White Co., supra, 275. The defendant contends that the Nevada judgments are not valid because Nevada lacked jurisdiction over him in the original proceedings. The defendant, however, has already had an opportunity for full hearing on this precise issue in the courts of Nevada. When a defendant appears in an action to object that the court has no jurisdiction over him and the court overrules the objection and renders judgment against him, the local law of the State where the judgment was rendered determines, subject to constitutional limitations, whether the parties are precluded from attacking the judgment collaterally on the ground that the court had no jurisdiction over the defendant. 1 Restatement (Second), Conflicts § 96. In conformity with this view, we look to Nevada law to determine whether the defendant, having already litigated in Nevada the question of Nevada's jurisdiction over him, may now collaterally attack the judgments on the basis of jurisdiction. In Paradise Palms Community Assn. v. Paradise Homes, 89 Nev. 27, 505 P.2d 596, cert. denied, 414 U.S. 865, 94 S. Ct. 129, 38 L. Ed. 2d 117 (1973), the Supreme Court of Nevada barred a claim of lack of jurisdiction in a collateral action. In the original action in that case the defendant moved to set aside a default judgment against it as void because the person served with process was not a person upon whom service was authorized. The court, after a hearing, found against the defendant. In a later collateral action the defendant again objected to the jurisdiction of the court due to lack of proper service. The Nevada court held that the issue of jurisdiction had been determined in the prior proceeding and was res judicata in the later proceeding. Id., 30-32. In a more recent case the Supreme Court of Nevada affirmed that [t]he doctrine of res judicata proscribes the hearing of an issue determined by a court of competent jurisdiction in a previous proceeding between the same parties in the same cause of action.... This doctrine applies to questions of jurisdiction with the same force as to other legal issues. (Emphasis added and citations omitted.) Alitalia-Linee Aeree Italiane-S.p.A. v. Second Judicial District Court of the State of Nevada, 92 Nev. 638, 640, 556 P.2d 544 (1976); see also Durfee v. Duke, supra, 111; Williams v. North Carolina, supra, 230; Vecchione v. Wohlgemuth, 426 F. Sup. 1297, 1309 (E.D. Pa.), affd, 558 F.2d 150 (3d Cir.), cert. denied sub nom. Beal v. Vecchione, 434 U.S. 943, 98 S. Ct. 439, 54 L. Ed. 2d 304 (1977); Breslerman v. American Liberty Ins. Co., 218 F. Sup. 345, 346-47 (S.D.N.Y. 1963), aff'd, 326 F.2d 756 (2d Cir. 1964); Cascade Chemical Coatings, Inc. v. Wellco Chemical Products Co., 15 111. App. 3d 1056, 1057, 305 N.E.2d 595 (1973), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 841, 95 S. Ct. 72, 42 L. Ed. 2d 69 (1974); Vander v. Casperson, 12 N.Y.2d 56, 59, 187 N.E.2d 109, 236 N.Y.S.2d 33 (1962). Because the defendant would be precluded in Nevada from again litigating the question of jurisdiction in a collateral proceeding, whether or not that question had been rightly decided originally, he may not do so here. [4] In the 1972 action the defendant submitted the question of whether the Nevada court had jurisdiction to enter the support decree in 1971. The defendant was not without recourse following the decision adverse to him. He could have moved to have that verdict set aside. [5] He could have directly appealed to the Nevada appellate court. [6] He chose instead to take no further action and the 1972decision remains conclusive on the question of Nevada's jurisdiction over the defendant. The 1972decisions of the Nevada court, not having been appealed, would have been res judicata in the 1979 Nevada action and remain res judicata for the purposes of the proceedings before the Connecticut court. Alitalia-Linee Aeree Italiane-S.p.A. v. Second Judicial District Court of the State of Nevada, supra; Paradise Palms Community Assn. v. Paradise Homes, supra; see also 1 Restatement (Second), Judgments § 10 (2) and comment f. The case relied on by the defendant, Doyle v. Jorgensen, 82 Nev. 196, 414 P.2d 707 (1966), is not to the contrary. In that case, one summons was issued to two defendants in violation of Nevada procedure. Neither party appeared in the action and default judgments were entered against both. The parties moved to set aside the default judgments for lack of jurisdiction due to improper service and for other grounds. Because the motion to set aside the default judgment contained grounds in addition to lack of jurisdiction, the lower court found that the motion constituted a general reply and thus the court acquired jurisdiction as of the time of the filing of the motion. The Nevada Supreme Court held that jurisdiction acquired at the time of the motion would not relate back to give jurisdiction at the time the default judgment was entered. Id., 201. The instant case does not concern a question of jurisdiction relating back to another action. The court did not first acquire jurisdiction in 1972. The 1972 order implicitly found that jurisdiction over the defendant existed at the time of the 1971 proceeding. The 1972 order is res judicata on the question of jurisdiction and the court below erred in both actions in considering the merits of the jurisdiction issue.