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Court of Civil Appeals Reverses Trial Court's Setting Aside of a Domesticated Default Judgment Pursuant to Rule 60(b)

p class="LFWBlank" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt"In ua href="http://www.alabamaappellatewatch.com/uploads/file/cambria.pdf"Camb/a/uua href="http://www.alabamaappellatewatch.com/uploads/file/cambria.pdf"ria v. Worldwide Custom Materials, Inc/a./u, No. 2070855, released by the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, the court reversed the trial courtrsquo;s order setting aside a domesticated default judgment pursuant to Rule 60(b).nbsp;/ppCambria sued Worldwide Custom Materials, Bramlett, and Groves in Minnesota seeking to recover a debt he was allegedly owed.nbsp;Neither Worldwide, Bramlett, or Groves answered, so the Minnesota court entered a default judgment against them.nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt"Pursuant to the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (ldquo;the UEFJArdquo;), codified at sect;6-9-230 of the Alabama Code, Cambria filed a Notice of Filing Judgment in the trial court.nbsp;In response, Worldwide, Bramlett, and Groves filed a Rule 60(b)(4) motion seeking to set aside the domesticated Minnesota judgment as void on the ground that the Minnesota court lacked personal jurisdiction due to improper service.nbsp;None of them, however,nbsp;provided any evidence in support of their contentions.nbsp;The trial court entered an order setting aside the Minnesota judgment without stating its rationale for doing so.nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt"The Court of Civil Appeals stated the standard of review:/p p style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt 40px"The standard of review on appeal from an order granting relief under Rulenbsp;60 (b)(4)/p p style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt 40px"Ala.nbsp;R. Civ.nbsp;P. (ldquo;the judgment is voidrdquo;), is not whether the trial court has exceeded its nbsp;discretion.nbsp;nbsp; When the decision to grant or to deny relief turns on the validity of the nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; judgment, discretion has no field of operation.nbsp;If the judgment is void, it is to be set nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; aside; if is valid, it must standhellip;.A judgment is void only if the court which rendered it nbsp;nbsp; lacked jurisdiction of the subject matter, or of the parties, or if it acted in a manner nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; inconsistent with due process.nbsp;nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt"(internal citations omitted)./p p style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt"The court further noted that ldquo;the judgment of the court of another state having jurisdiction of the subject matter and persons is entitled to full faith and credit in Alabama courts.nbsp;The authentication and filing of a sister statersquo;s judgment with a circuit court of this state in accordance with the UEFJA creates a rebuttable presumption that the court rendering that judgment had jurisdiction to do so and shifts to the party challenging that judgment the burden of producing evidence to rebut the presumption.nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt"Here, a rebuttable presumption arose when Cambria authenticated and filed the Minnesota judgment in accordance with the UEJFA.nbsp;Although Worldwide, Groves, and Bramlett made unsworn allegations that they had not been served with process in the Minnesota court, they failed to produce any evidence to prove those unsworn allegations or to otherwise rebut the presumption.nbsp;/p p style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt"Therefore, the trial courtrsquo;s order setting aside the Minnesota judgment was reversed.nbsp;/pimg src="http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/AlabamaAppellateWatch/~4/487917074" height="1" width="1"/

Full post as published by Alabama Appellate Watch on December 17, 2008 (boomark / email).