Recognizing the Need to Recognize: A Proposed Foreign Judgment Recognition Statute and a Procedure for Enforcement in Louisiana

• Author: Elias M. Medina
• Position: J.D. 2020, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University
• Pages: 917-961

Louisiana Law Review Louisiana Law Review

Volume 80

Number 3

Spring 2020

Article 12

9-15-2020

Recognizing the Need to Recognize: A Proposed Foreign Recognizing the Need to Recognize: A Proposed Foreign

Judgment Recognition Statute and a Procedure for Enforcement Judgment Recognition Statute and a Procedure for Enforcement

in Louisiana in Louisiana

Elias M. Medina

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Repository Citation Repository Citation

Elias M. Medina,

Recognizing the Need to Recognize: A Proposed Foreign Judgment Recognition Statute

and a Procedure for Enforcement in Louisiana

, 80 La. L. Rev. (2020)

Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol80/iss3/12

This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at LSU Law Digital

Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Louisiana Law Review by an authorized editor of LSU Law Digital

Commons. For more information, please contact kreed25@lsu.edu.

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Recognizing the Need to Recognize: A Proposed

Foreign Judgment Recognition Statute and a

Procedure for Enforcement in Louisiana

Elias M. Medina*

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction.................................................................................. 916

I. Developing a Recognition Framework:

Frankenstein’s Monster of Piecemeal State Law ......................... 921

A. The Origins of Comity........................................................... 922

B. Recognition and Enforcement as a State

Responsibility ........................................................................ 924

C. Uniform Acts for Foreign Judgment Recognition and

Enforcement........................................................................... 927

II. The Enforceability of Foreign Judgments in Louisiana ............... 930

A. Louisiana Circuit Split........................................................... 930

B. Statutory Interpretation.......................................................... 932

III. Key Issues in Statutory Foreign Judgment and

Enforcement Law ......................................................................... 935

A. Full Faith and Credit.............................................................. 935

B. Bases for Recognition in the Recognition Acts

and the Restatement............................................................... 937

1. Finality of Judgment ....................................................... 938

2. Jurisdiction ...................................................................... 939

3. Impartial Tribunals..........................................................940

C. Reciprocity............................................................................. 940

IV. A Statute Is Suitable for Louisiana’s

Mixed-Jurisdiction Status............................................................. 942

A. Louisiana’s Mixed-Jurisdiction Legal Tradition ................... 943

Copyright 2020, by ELIAS M. MEDINA.

* J.D. 2020, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University. This

Comment is dedicated to Rachel Jarrell. Thanks to Professors Keith Hall and

Marlene Krousel for thoughtful notes throughout the writing process, and to

James Shelledy, friend and mentor, for consistently pushing me to think critically

and creatively.

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916 LOUISIANA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 80

B. Louisiana’s Statute Must Consider Full Faith and

Credit Implications ................................................................ 946

C. The Statute’s Rationale—What Law and Why...................... 948

1. Full Faith and Credit ....................................................... 949

2. The 2005 Recognition Statute Is Ideal

for Louisiana ................................................................... 950

3. Necessary Amendments to Adopt the 2005

Recognition Act .............................................................. 952

a. Interplay Among the Code of Civil Procedure,

the 2005 Recognition Act, and the EFJA ................. 952

b. Full Faith and Credit for Sister-Recognized

Judgments Pursuant to the EFJA .............................. 955

Conclusion.................................................................................... 957

INTRODUCTION

In today’s global economy, parties are increasingly dependent on

international trade.1 This increase in trade has spurred transnational

litigation, ranging from Nicaraguan banana workers suing Dole in the

United States2 to a United States branch of a United Kingdom-based

corporation suing a Saudi Arabian corporation in the Kingdom of

Bahrain.3 In the latter case, the plaintiff successfully obtained

recognition—the act of adopting another court’s judgment—of the

Bahraini judgment in a New York state court.4 The plaintiff then attempted

to enforce the New York judgment in District of Columbia and

1. Rapture Shipping, Ltd. v. Allround Fuel Trading B.V., 350 F. Supp. 2d

369, 373 (S.D.N.Y. 2004) (“The importance of extending comity . . . has only

increased as our economy has become increasingly global and dependent upon

international commerce.”).

2. First Amended Complaint, Tellez v. Dole Food Co., No. BC312852, 2004

WL 5468592 (Cal. Super. Ct. L.A. Cnty. Sept 7, 2004). For a discussion of the

Dole litigation saga, see Armin Rosencranz & Stephen Roblin, Tellez v. Dole:

Nicaraguan Banana Workers Confront the U.S. Judicial System, 7 GOLDEN GAT E

U. ENVTL. L.J. 113 (2014).

3. Standard Chartered Bank v. Ahmad Hamad Al Gosaibi & Bros. Co., 957

N.Y.S.2d 602 (Sup. Ct. 2012).

4. Id.