Alaska Commercial Co. v. Debney

144 F. 1, 75 C.C.A. 131, 2 Alaska Fed. 476, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 3817
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 5, 1906
DocketNo. 1,200
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 144 F. 1 (Alaska Commercial Co. v. Debney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alaska Commercial Co. v. Debney, 144 F. 1, 75 C.C.A. 131, 2 Alaska Fed. 476, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 3817 (9th Cir. 1906).

Opinion

ROSS, Circuit Judge.

This action was brought in the court below upon a judgment theretofore entered in the Territorial Court of Yukon Territory, Canada, for $6,270.96, and costs taxed at $248.60, in an action there brought by the plaintiff against the defendant, upon an account for goods and merchandise sold and delivered to him by the plaintiff, and upon a promissory note for $2,610.69, with interest, executed by the defendant to one Milan, and by him afterwards assigned to the plaintiff.

In the complaint filed in the court below the plaintiff joined with the count upon the Canadian judgment counts for the goods and merchandise sold and delivered to the defendant, and upon the promissory note executed by him to Milan, and by the latter assigned to the plaintiff. The court below, on the motion of the defendant, struck from the complaint the counts upon the promissory note and for the goods and merchandise, on the ground that they were merged in the judgment, and were therefore irrelevant and immaterial.

In his amended answer the defendant denied all of the allegations of the complaint, except that in respect to the corporate capacity of the plaintiff, and also set up in defense that the Canadian court that gave the judgment sued upon in this action never acquired jurisdiction of the defendant; that at the time that action was commenced the defendant was an actual bona fide resident of the District of Alaska, United States of America, and a native-born citizen of the United States, and was not in the Territory of Yukon, Dominion of Canada, and had no notice or knowledge of the action in the Dominion of Canada until the summons and complaint in the present action were served upon him; [478]*478that the defendant did not own any property, real or personal, in Yukon Territory, Dominion of Canada, at the time the action there was commenced, and that no summons, complaint, process, or notice of any kind in that action was ever served upon the defendant, personally or by publication, or upon any person authorized to admit service of process for the defendant; that he never appeared in that action, either in person or by attorney; and that no order for service of summons or process by publication was ever made by the Territorial Court of Yukon Territory, Canada, in the said action.

The plaintiff filed a reply to the amended answer of the defendant, alleging, among other things, that at the time of the commencement of the action against the defendant in the Territorial Court of Yukon Territory it was provided by the Consolidated Ordinances of the Northwest Territories, which ordinances were by “An act to provide for the government of the Yukon District, Canada,” passed by Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, and assented, to June 13, 1898, made the laws in and for the said Yukon Territory, Canada, that personal service of the writ of summons in actions pending in the court of the said territory. shall be effected by copy by personal service anywhere in the territory, and in case any defendant is out of the territory, but has an agent, managing clerk, or other representative resident and carrying on his business within the same, service may be made upon such agent, managing clerk, or other representative; that in the month of September, 1900, the defendant nominated and appointed Albert W. Debney his true and lawful agent, representative, and attorney, to represent him and transact all his business in Yukon Territory, Canada, which appointment has never been revoked, and still remains in full force and effect; that the writ of summons and statement of claim in the action there brought were duly served upon the defendant by delivering copies thereof to the said Albert W. Debney, defendant’s agent, attorney, and representative in Yukon Territory, and that the amended statement of claim and writ of summons were duly served upon the said defendant in the same manner; that service of all the said papers was duly and regularly made by the defendant in accordance [479]*479with the laws in force in Yukon Territory, Canada, at the time of making the same; and that evidence of the service of the amended statement of claim and writ of summons was produced before the Territorial Court of Yukon Territory, which court at the rendition of its judgment had full and complete jurisdiction of the person of the defendant under and by virtue of those laws.

The plaintiff also moved the court for leave to file an amended complaint, in which it more fully and specifically stated the counts upon the promissory note alleged to have been executed by the defendant to Milan and by him assigned to the plaintiff, and the count for the goods and merchandise alleged to have been sold and delivered by the plaintiff to the defendant, constituting the causes of action upon which the Canadian judgment was obtained, and which it desired to join with the count upon that judgment in the court below. The court, however, refused to allow the amended complaint to be filed, and proceeded to the trial of the cause.

Upon the conclusion of all of the evidence the plaintiff again asked leave of the court to file its said amended complaint, which motion was also denied; the court still holding that the causes of action upon the note and upon the open account were merged in the Canadian judgment and that that judgment was conclusive upon the merits, but was, among other things, open to attack upon the question of jurisdiction. And the court below finally held that that judgment was void, for the reason that there was never any service of process upon the defendant, and accordingly dismissed the plaintiff’s complaint upon the merits, with costs to the defendant.

The force and effect of foreign judgments was very carefully considered by the Supreme Court in the cases of Hilton v. Guyot, 159 U.S. 113, 16 S.Ct. 139, 40 L.Ed. 95, and Ritchie v. McMullen, 159 U.S. 235, 16 S.Ct. 171, 40 L.Ed. 133. After a most elaborate review of the decisions and text-writers, the majority of the court said, in Hilton v. Guyot, 159 U.S. 202, 16 S.Ct. 158, 40 L.Ed. 95: “In view of all the authorities upon the subject, and of the trend of judicial opinion in this country and in England, following the lead of Kent and Story, we are satis[480]*480fied that where there has been opportunity for a full and fair trial provided, before a court of competent jurisdiction, conducting the trial by regular proceedings, after due citation or voluntary appearance of the defendant, and under a system of jurisprudence likely to secure an impartial administration of justice between the citizens of its own country and those of other countries, and there is nothing to show either prejudice in the court or in the system of laws under which it was sitting, or fraud in procuring the judgment, or any other special reason why the comity of this nation should not allow it full effect, the merits of the case should not, in an action brought in this country upon the judgment, be tried afresh as on a new trial or an appeal, upon the mere assertion of the party that the judgment was erroneous in law or in fact. The defendants therefore cannot be permitted, upon that general ground, to contest the validity or the effect of the judgment sued on.”

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Bluebook (online)
144 F. 1, 75 C.C.A. 131, 2 Alaska Fed. 476, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 3817, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alaska-commercial-co-v-debney-ca9-1906.