Final judgments issued from federal district courts sitting in Mississippi or any court outside the state of Mississippi are considered “foreign judgments.”[1] Mississippi follows the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (the “UEFJ”) for procedures in enrolling foreign final judgments.[2] The UEFJ defines a foreign judgment as “any judgment, decree or order of a court of the United States or of any other court which is entitled to full faith and credit in this state.”[3]
“Foreign” judgments from federal courts, as defined by the UEFJ, are registered in other federal court districts in accordance with the process detailed in 28 U.S.C. § 1963. The certification of judgment for registration in another district may be obtained from the United States Courts website here. Judgments registered in another United States District Court district other than the district in which the judgment was issued will have the same effect as a “judgment of the district court of the district where registered and may be enforced in like manner.”[4]
Foreign judgments must be enrolled in Mississippi within three years of the date the judgment is rendered if the judgment debtor was (or is at the time of enrollment) a Mississippi resident.[5] Conversely, if the judgment debtor is not a Mississippi resident, then a foreign judgment must be enrolled within seven years of the date it is rendered.[6] To begin the process of enrolling or domesticating a foreign judgment, the judgment creditor must file with the desired circuit court clerk a copy of the foreign judgment “authenticated in accordance with the act of Congress or the statutes of this state or any rule promulgated and adopted by the Mississippi Supreme Court.”[7] The exemplification certificate authenticating foreign judgments under the act of Congress may be obtained from the United States Courts website here, and its completion must be requested by the judgment creditor. In instances where judgment creditors cannot obtain authentication of the foreign judgment, a certified copy of the judgment may suffice under Miss. Code Ann. § 11-7-303.[8] When enrolling a foreign judgment, judgment creditors are also required to file an affidavit containing the name and last known post office addresses of the judgment debtor and the judgment creditor, respectively, along with the authenticated (or certified) copy of the foreign judgment.[9]
The circuit clerk is required to mail a notice to the judgment debtor upon the judgment creditor filing a copy of the authenticated judgment and accompanying affidavit.[10] At its option, the judgment creditor may send notice directly to the judgment debtor and file proof of mailing with the clerk, in which case the creditor’s mailing of notice is sufficient should the clerk fail to send the notice.[11] The judgment creditor must then wait a period of twenty days before further executing or enforcing the judgment.[12] An abstract of the judgment may be enrolled in other counties as if it were a domestic judgment once the foreign judgment has been domesticated in the appropriate county and is uncontested.[13] Judgment debtors wishing to contest enrollment of a foreign judgment must file a response or answer to the enrollment within twenty days of the judgment creditor filing the foreign judgment.[14]
A foreign judgment is to be treated like a domestic judgment once it has been enrolled in Mississippi.[15] It is subject to the same procedures, defenses, and enforcement as a domestic judgment.[16] Accordingly, foreign judgments, once enrolled, may be renewed in accordance with the renewal procedures for domestic judgments.[17]
While Mississippi’s adoption of the UEFJ applies to judgments entered by state and federal courts within the United States, the UEFJ does not apply to judgments from foreign countries. Many states have adopted the Uniform Foreign-Country Money Judgments Recognition Act. Mississippi’s legislature has attempted to adopt such a law in recent years but has not been successful in passing such legislation to date. Still, Mississippi does have a common law means for enforcing foreign country judgments under principles of comity and res judicata that rely on nineteenth-century treatises known as the Kent-Story Rule.[18] The United States Supreme Court set out the requirements for enforcing foreign country judgments under the Kent-Story Rule in Hilton v. Guyot, which allows for the enforcement of a foreign country judgment from a judicial system that provides for full and fair trial abroad before a competent and impartial tribunal unless:
The Kent-Story Rule set out in Hilton is similar to the approach of the Uniform Foreign Country Money-Judgment Recognition Act adopted in other states, which allows for enforcement of a foreign country judgment for a claim for money “in the same manner as the judgment of a sister state which is entitled to full faith and credit” once the judgment becomes “final and conclusive and enforceable where rendered even though an appeal therefrom is pending or it is subject to appeal.”[20]
[1]Buckley v. Personnel Support Systems, Inc., 852 So. 2d 648, 652 (Miss. Ct. App. 2003) (observing that federal in-state judgments are subject to Act).
[2] See Miss. Code Ann. §§ 11-7-301 et seq.
[3]Miss. Code Ann. § 11-7-301.
[5] Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-45.
[7] See Miss. Code Ann. § 11-7-303 (“A copy of any foreign judgment authenticated in accordance with the act of Congress or the statutes of this state or any rule promulgated and adopted by the Mississippi Supreme Court may be filed in the office of the clerk of the circuit court of any county in this state. Said clerk shall treat the foreign judgment in the same manner as a judgment of the circuit court of any county in this state. 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 circuit court of any county in this state and may be enforced or satisfied in like manner, subject to the provisions of Section 15-1-45.”)
[8] As promulgated by the Mississippi Supreme Court, Mississippi Rule of Evidence 902(1) states in relevant part that “[a] document bearing a seal purporting to be that of the United States … or of a political subdivision, department, officer or agency thereof, and a signature purporting to be an attestation or execution” is self-authenticating in Mississippi judicial proceedings. Subsection (4) of that MRE 902 states that the following is self-authenticating in Mississippi judicial proceedings: “[a] copy of an official record … or of a document authorized by law to be recorded or filed and actually recorded or filed in a public office … certified as correct by the custodian or other person authorized to make certification, by certificate complying with paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of this rule or complying with any Act of Congress or rule prescribed by the Supreme Court pursuant to statutory authority.”
[9] Miss. Code Ann. § 11-7-305(1) (“At the time of the filing of the foreign judgment, the judgment creditor or his lawyer shall make and file with the clerk of the circuit court, as the case may be, an affidavit setting forth the name and last known post office address of the judgment debtor and the judgment creditor.”)
[10] Miss. Code Ann. § 11-7-305(2) (“Promptly upon the filing of the foreign judgment and the affidavit, the clerk shall mail notice of the filing of the foreign judgment to the judgment debtor at the address given and shall make a note of the mailing in the docket. The notice shall include the name and post office address of the judgment creditor and the judgment creditor’s lawyer, if any, in this state. In addition, the judgment creditor may mail a notice of the filing of the judgment to the judgment debtor and may file proof of mailing with the clerk. Lack of mailing notice of filing by the clerk shall not affect the enforcement proceedings if proof of mailing by the judgment creditor has been filed.”) The statute does not require receipt of the notice by the judgment debtor. Id.
[12] Miss. Code Ann. § 11-7-305(3) (“No execution or other process for enforcement of a foreign judgment filed hereunder shall issue until twenty (20) days after the date the judgment is filed.”)
[13] Miss. Code Ann. § 11-7-303; Miss. Code Ann. 11-7-195 (“A judgment or decree rendered in any court of the United States or of this state shall not be a lien upon or bind any property of the defendant situated out of the county in which the judgment or decree was rendered until the plaintiff shall file in the office of the clerk of the circuit court of the county in which such property is situated an abstract of such judgment or decree which has been certified by the clerk of the court in which the same was rendered containing the names of all the parties to such judgment or decree, its amount, the social security or tax identification number of the defendant if such information is known or readily ascertainable, the date of the rendition, and the amount appearing to have been paid thereon, if any. It shall be the duty of the clerk of the circuit court on receiving such abstract and on payment of the fees allowed by law for filing and enrolling the same, to file and forthwith enroll the same on The Judgment Roll, as in other cases. Such judgment or decree shall, from the date of its enrollment, be a lien upon and bind the property of the defendant within the county where it shall be so enrolled. If a foreign judgment has been filed in any county of this state pursuant to Sections 11-7-301 through 11-7-309 and such judgment may be enforced in such county, then, for purposes of this section, such judgment shall be treated as if it had been rendered in such county and may be enrolled on The Judgment Roll in other counties pursuant to the provisions of this section.”)
[14] Davis v. Davis, 558 So. 2d 814, 819 (Miss. 1990) (Procedurally, a judgment debtor must take affirmative action to file a response or answer to enrollment efforts within 20 days from the date the judgment is enrolled).
[15] Miss. Code Ann. § 11-7-303.
[17] See Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-43 (setting out process for renewal of domestic judgments).
[18] ARTICLE: MISSISSIPPI CONFLICT OF LAWS, 67 Miss. L.J. 175, 191.
[19] Hilton v. Guyot, 159 U.S. 113 (1895); ARTICLE: MISSISSIPPI CONFLICT OF LAWS, 67 Miss. L.J. 175, 191.
[20] ARTICLE: MISSISSIPPI CONFLICT OF LAWS, 67 Miss. L.J. 175, 191.
