Alpine Equipment v. U.S. Sewer and Drain

CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 21, 2019
Docket682 EDA 2018
StatusUnpublished

This text of Alpine Equipment v. U.S. Sewer and Drain (Alpine Equipment v. U.S. Sewer and Drain) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alpine Equipment v. U.S. Sewer and Drain, (Pa. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

J-A27015-18

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

ALPINE EQUIPMENT FUNDING, INC., : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF A CALIFORNIA CORPORATION : PENNSYLVANIA : v. : : U.S. SEWER AND DRAIN CAYMAN, : LTD., ALSO KNOWN AS U.S. SEWER : AND DRAIN CAYMAN, LLC; U.S. : SEWER AND DRAIN, INC., A : PENNSYLVANIA CORPORATION; : JEREMEY R. BOWMAN, AN : INDIVIDUAL; U.S. PIPELINING, LLC, : A PENNSYLVANIA LIMITED LIABILITY : COMPANY; AND LISA G. BOWMAN, : AN INDIVIDUAL : : APPEAL OF: U.S. PIPELINING, LLC, A : PENNSYLVANIA LIMITED LIABILITY : COMPANY; AND LISA G. BOWMAN, : AN INDIVIDUAL : No. 682 EDA 2018

Appeal from the Order Entered February 14, 2018 In the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County Civil Division at No(s): 2017-05679

BEFORE: BOWES, J., STABILE, J., and McLAUGHLIN, J.

MEMORANDUM BY BOWES, J.: FILED MARCH 21, 2019

U.S. Pipelining, LLC, and Lisa G. Bowman (“Appellants” collectively)

appeal from the order denying their petition to strike a foreign judgment and

stay execution. We affirm.

Alpine Equipment Funding, Inc. (“Alpine”), a California corporation with

its principal place of business in California, is a lessor of large equipment. For

years, Alpine leased equipment to U.S. Sewer and Drain, Inc. (“USSDI”) and

U.S. Sewer and Drain Cayman, LLC (“USSDC”), companies owned and J-A27015-18

operated by Jeremy and Lisa Bowman from Pennsylvania. Prior to entering

into a contract, Alpine required lessees to submit evidence of solvency and

creditworthiness. Alpine allowed its lessees to take title to the leased

equipment, with the lessee obtaining insurance thereon.

As part of the ongoing relationship, in 2013, Alpine entered into two

contracts with USSDI and one with USSDC, all of which contained forum

selection clauses providing that any litigation arising from the contracts must

take place in California. Jeremy Bowman, who was president of both

companies, personally guaranteed the amounts owed under the contracts.

Alpine’s contact for obtaining the required payments was Lisa Bowman.

USSDI’s address was listed in its contracts as 1100 Wood Lane, Langhorne,

PA. USSDC’s address was a post office box in Langhorne, PA. Electronic

correspondence from the lessees to Alpine came from the domain

“@ussewer.com.”

In 2013, U.S. Pipelining, LLC, was formed in Pennsylvania, with Lisa

Bowman as the sole owner and Jeremy Bowman as president. Alpine first

became aware of the existence of U.S. Pipelining in December 2013, when

Lisa Bowman identified U.S. Pipelining at 1100 Wood Lane, Langhorne, PA, as

the title owner of a truck that Alpine had leased to USSDI. The equipment

was also insured by U.S. Pipelining rather than by USSDI. When Alpine

contacted the Bowmans to inquire about the discrepancy, Alpine was informed

that it was “just a name change.” Emails to Alpine began to come from the

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domain “@uspiplining.com” rather than “@ussewer.com.” USSDI also

changed its website to one owned by U.S. Pipelining. From November 2014

until January 2016, when Alpine stopped receiving any payments on the

USSDI and USSDC contracts, the payments to Alpine were made by U.S.

Pipelining.

In 2016, Alpine brought suit in California against USSDI, USSDC, and

Jeremy Bowman to recover under the contracts. Alpine discovered that USSDI

and USSDC no longer had assets, that U.S. Pipelining was a separate legal

entity from USSDI and USSDC, and that Jeremy Bowman, the guarantor of

the contracts, was merely an employee, not an owner, of U.S. Pipelining.

Accordingly, Alpine filed an amended complaint adding Appellants as

defendants. The amended complaint averred that the defendants were alter

egos of each other, with commingled assets and no separate identities. The

amended complaint contained eleven counts, including claims of breach of

contract, fraudulent transfer, tortious interference with contracts, conversion,

and unjust enrichment against all defendants, including Appellants. None of

the defendants appeared to defend the California action, resulting in the entry

of a default judgment against all of them in March 2017.

On August 29, 2017, Alpine initiated the instant action in Pennsylvania

by filing a praecipe to register the California judgment. Appellants filed a

petition to strike the judgment, contending that the California court lacked

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personal jurisdiction over them.1 The trial court, after issuing a rule to show

cause, ultimately denied the petition. Appellants simultaneously filed a timely

notice of appeal and a concise statement of matters complained of on appeal.

Appellants present one question for our review: “Whether the foreign default

judgment obtained by [Alpine] is entitled to full faith and credit with respect

to Appellants[.]” Appellants’ brief at 3.

We review a trial court’s denial of a petition to strike a judgment for an

abuse of discretion or error of law. Reco Equip., Inc. v. John T. Subrick

Contracting, Inc., 780 A.2d 684, 686 (Pa.Super. 2001). “A petition to strike

is not a chance to review the merits of the allegations of a complaint. Rather,

a petition to strike is aimed at defects that affect the validity of the judgment

and that entitle the petitioner, as a matter of law, to relief.” Green Acres

Rehab. & Nursing Ctr. v. Sullivan, 113 A.3d 1261, 1267 (Pa.Super. 2015)

(cleaned up).

Under the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, an

authenticated copy of a judgment from another state filed in a court of

common pleas is treated the same as a judgment entered in a Pennsylvania

court. 42 Pa.C.S. § 4306(b).

[J]udgments entered in sister states are entitled to full faith and credit in Pennsylvania so long as there was jurisdiction by the court which originally awarded the judgment, and the defendant had an opportunity to appear and defend. The courts in ____________________________________________

1The petition does not challenge the jurisdiction of the California court over USSDI, USSDC, and Jeremy Bowman.

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Pennsylvania will refuse to give full faith and credit to a foreign judgment if it was obtained in derogation of a basic, due process right of the defendant. However, when the court of another state has purported to act on the merits of a case, its jurisdiction to do so and the regularity of its proceedings are presumptively valid. The party challenging the validity of the judgment, therefore, bears the burden of showing any irregularity in the proceedings.

Standard Chartered Bank v. Ahmad Hamad Al Gosaibi & Bros. Co., 99

A.3d 936, 942 (Pa.Super. 2014) (cleaned up).

In determining whether the court that originally entered the judgment

had personal jurisdiction over the defendants, we look to the law of that state

to the extent that it is consistent with the decisions of the United States

Supreme Court. Frontier Leasing Corp. v. Shah, 931 A.2d 676, 680

(Pa.Super. 2007); Tandy Computer Leasing, a Div. of Tandy Elecs., Inc.

v. DeMarco, 564 A.2d 1299, 1304 (Pa.Super. 1989).

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Alpine Equipment v. U.S. Sewer and Drain, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alpine-equipment-v-us-sewer-and-drain-pasuperct-2019.