Extract
Vacatur of foreign judgments: options for collateral relief in courts of registration.
I. INTRODUCTION
The American system of government consists of sovereign states bound together by a federal government that possesses limited powers. (1) Since the earliest days of the republic, judicial bodies have entertained actions to enforce judgments that were rendered in different states. (2) Courts have long believed that the judicial body registering the judgment ("registering court" or "court of registration") is not bound to do so unless the court rendering the judgment ("rendering court" or "court of rendition") "ha[s] jurisdiction of the parties and of the subject-matter." (3) The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure adopt this traditional position by allowing parties to petition the court for relief from a final judgment if the judgment is void, i.e., if the rendering court lacked jurisdiction. (4) Jurisdictional deficiencies are not the only grounds for relief from final judgment under the Rules; indeed, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b) ("Rule 60(b)") provides a total of six grounds for relief. (5) Traditionally, a judgment was considered void if it contained a jurisdictional defect, while judgments with non-jurisdictional deficiencies were only considered voidable. (6) The distinction between void and voidable judgments is important because void judgments are subject to both direct and collateral attack, whereas voidable judgments may be subject to direct attack. (7) Thus, the traditional view has been that a party could only make collateral attacks against judgments on a theory of jurisdictional deficiency. (8) The Seventh and Third Circuit Courts of Appeals, however, reject this traditional view. The Seventh Circuit has held that registering courts lack the power to entertain motions to vacate foreign judgments for jurisdictional deficiencies. (9) In contrast, the Third Circuit has recently given registering courts the power to vacate foreign judgments on grounds that the rendering court lacked jurisdi...See the full content of this document
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