 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Employee Leasing Services in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Hill v. Value Recovery Group9/16/1998
Appellant James Hill appeals from the denial of his motion to dismiss and set aside a foreign judgment.
We affirm.
ISSUES
Hill presents the following issues for our consideration on appeal:
Does the statute of limitations of W.S. § 1-3-105(a)(iii) apply to the filing of a foreign judgment under the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act?
Did the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act repeal the statute of limitations on foreign judgments?
FACTS
On October 14, 1987, the district court in Wichita County, Texas, entered a judgment against Hill and in favor of InterFirst Bank Wichita Falls, N.A. Appellee Value Recovery Group, L.P., acquired the judgment from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and it filed the Texas judgment in the Wyoming district court in Carbon County on February 4, 1997. Hill moved to dismiss and set aside the Texas judgment on the ground that the limitation delineated in Section 1-3-105(a)(iii) of the Wyoming statutes barred the filing of the foreign judgment. In the affidavit that he filed to support his motion, Hill stated that he had been a resident of Wyoming for more than five years and that the facts giving rise to "Plaintiff's cause of action and judgment, in the Texas civil proceeding
accrued on October 14, 1987."
The Wyoming district court held a hearing to consider Hill's motion. Finding that the statute of limitations does not apply to filing a foreign judgment, the district court denied Hill's motion. Hill appealed to this Court.
DISCUSSION
Hill maintains that the district court erred when it denied his motion to dismiss and set aside Value Recovery Group's foreign judgment. He argues that the district court was mistaken when it concluded that Section 1-3-105(a)(iii) did not apply in this case.
A judgment creditor has two legal avenues available to it to enforce a foreign judgment in Wyoming. It may proceed under the simplified procedures of the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, which is codified at Sections 1-17-701 through 1-17-707 of the Wyoming statutes, or it may institute a separate lawsuit to enforce its judgment. WYO. STAT. §§ 1-17-701 to -707 (1997); Hull v. Buffalo Federal Savings & Loan Association, 661 P.2d 1049, 1051 n. 2 (Wyo. 1983). Value Recovery Group filed the Texas judgment in the Wyoming district court pursuant to the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act. Section 1-17-703 describes the method and effect of filing a foreign judgment under the Act:
A copy of any foreign judgment authenticated in accordance with the act of Congress or the statutes of this state may be filed in the office of the clerk of any district court of this state. The clerk shall treat the foreign judgment as a judgment of the district court of this state notwithstanding the amount of the judgment or that the action giving rise to the judgment, if initiated in this state, would be within the jurisdiction of a minor court. 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 district court of this state and may be so enforced or satisfied.
WYO. STAT. § 1-17-703 (1997). See Haltom v. Haltom, 755 P.2d 876, 878 (Wyo. 1988); see also Salmeri v. Salmeri, 554 P.2d 1244, 1250 (Wyo. 1976) (stating that a foreign judgment filed in accordance with the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act has the same effect as a judgment entered by a Wyoming court).
Hill claims that the limitation period specified in Section § 1-3-105(a)(iii)
Page 1 2 3 Wyoming Employee Leasing Services
Employee Leasing Services
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Employee Leasing Services in your area.
|
|