FLANGAS v. PERFEKT MARKETING, LLC

2022 NV 26
CourtNevada Supreme Court
DecidedApril 14, 2022
Docket81385
StatusPublished

This text of 2022 NV 26 (FLANGAS v. PERFEKT MARKETING, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nevada Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
FLANGAS v. PERFEKT MARKETING, LLC, 2022 NV 26 (Neb. 2022).

Opinion

138 Nev., Advance Opinion 210 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEVADA

LEONIDAS P. FLANGAS, AN No. 81385 INDIVIDUAL, Appellant, vs. FILED PERFEKT MARKETING, LLC, AN ARIZONA LIMITED LIABILITY APR 1 4 2022 COMPANY, Respondent. EF DEPUTY CLERK

Appeal from a district court order denying a motion to set aside a domesticated foreign judgment. Eighth Judicial District Court, Clark County; Trevor L. Atkin, Judge. Affirmed.

Lemons, Grundy & Eisenberg and Robert L. Eisenberg, Reno; Christopherson Law Offices and Ian Christopherson, Las Vegas, for Appellant.

The Law Office of Vernon Nelson and Vernon A. Nelson, Jr., Las Vegas, for Respondent.

BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT, EN BANC.'

'The Honorable Abbi Silver, Justice, is disqualified from participation in the decision of this matter. SUPREME COURT OF NEVADA

(0) I 947A 4,401. 2.7 - 1177r OPINION

By the Court, CADISH, J.: Respondent judgment creditor domesticated a foreign judgment in Nevada within the rendering states statute of limitations but did not perfect service of the domestication notice on appellant judgment debtor until after the rendering states limitations period for judgment enforcement passed. The district court denied appellant's motion to set aside the judgment, determining that respondent timely domesticated the judgment in Nevada and that respondent's accomplishment of actual service of the domestication notice on a later date did not affect the judgment's enforceability. Appellant now argues that the judgment is invalid and unenforceable because respondent did not renew it in the rendering state before it served appellant with notice of the domestication, thereby allowing the judgment to expire in the meantime. Appellant also argues that enforcement of a foreign judgment under such circumstances violates a judgment debtor's due-process rights. We conclude that under the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, which Nevada has adopted, a foreign judgment is enforceable in Nevada if the judgment creditor domesticates that judgment according to the provisions of the Act within the rendering states limitations period, and additionally, complies with the statutory notice provisions of the Act, which the district court correctly determined that appellant did here. We further conclude that enforcement of the foreign judgment does not violate due process because respondent served the domestication notice by certified mail, as required by statute, and this type of service is reasonably calculated to reach interested parties in this context. Accordingly, we affirm.

2 FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY Respondent Perfekt Marketing, LLC, obtained a judgment, entered on May 5, 2014, against appellant Leonidas Flangas in Arizona. On February 5, 2019, Perfekt Marketing domesticated the judgment by filing a certified copy of the foreign judgment and an affidavit of the foreign judgment's validity and enforceability, along with the names and last known addresses of the judgment debtor and creditor, respectively, in a Nevada district court. On February 6, 2019, Perfekt Marketing sent a notice of the filed application and affidavit by certified mail, return receipt requested, to Flangas's last-known address, as well as to the address of Flangas's attorney in Arizona. Additionally, Perfekt Marketing filed an affidavit of service with the Nevada district court to verify the date of service of the notice of the application and affidavit. Perfekt Marketing never received confirmation by way of the return receipt that Flangas received the mailed notice. Thereafter, it attempted personal service of the notice on Flangas at the same, last-known personal address on four subsequent occasions. Perfekt Marketing accomplished personal service on Flangas on June 6, 2019, this time at the address of Flangas's law firm, approximately 120 days after the domestication notice was first mailed to Flangas and his Arizona attorney. Thereafter, Flangas sought relief from the foreign judgment under NRCP 60(b). He argued that the Arizona judgment had expired, and thus, was void, because Perfekt Marketing failed to renew the judgment under Arizona law before it perfected personal service of the domestication notice on Flangas. Flangas also contended that the judgment was not entitled to full faith and credit because the delay in service of the domestication violated statutory-notice and due-process guarantees. Perfekt Marketing opposed and argued that the registration of a foreign

3 judgment in Nevada domesticates the judgment in Nevada and triggers the six-year statute of limitations in Nevada for judgment enforcement. It contended that it properly domesticated the Arizona judgment, regardless of the timing of personal service, because it filed the judgment in Nevada before its expiration under the Arizona statute of limitations. The district court ultimately denied Flangas's NRCP 60(b) motion, concluding "that the filing date of the application of foreign judgment [was] the effective date of the judgment in Nevada and "that there [was] no requirement that the notice of foreign judgment be served upon [the] judgment debtor." Flangas now appeals. DISCUSSION Enforceability of a foreign judgment is not defeated if a judgment creditor domesticates the judgment before its expiration in the rendering state, notwithstanding that the judgment debtor receives notice of the filing after its purported expiration in the rendering state Flangas argues that the date on which a judgment creditor provides actual notice of the filing of the foreign judgment to the judgment debtor serves as the operative date to determine whether a foreign judgment is valid and enforceable in a Nevada court. He asserts that the Arizona judgment had expired by the time Perfekt Marketing provided Flangas with actual notice of the domestication because the notice was not accomplished until after the Arizona statute of limitations for judgment enforcement had expired, and Perfekt Marketing failed to renew the judgment in Arizona before that expiration date. Further, he contends that Nevada courts cannot enforce an expired judgment, as it is no longer valid. We disagree.

4 Nevada's "enforcement measures" apply to the enforcement of foreign judgments. See Baker v. Gen. Motors Corp., 522 U.S. 222, 235 (1998) ("Enforcement measures . . . remain subject to the evenhanded control of forum law."). Nevada has adopted the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (UEFJA) to govern the procedures to domesticate and enforce a foreign judgment in Nevada. See NRS 17.330-.400. A foreign judgment is "any judgment of a court of the United States or of any other court which is entitled to full faith and credit." NRS 17.340. The UEFJA mandates enforcement of "any foreign judgment" by providing that "[a]n exemplified copy of any foreign judgment may be filed with the clerk of any district court of this state. The clerk shall treat the foreign judgment in the same manner as a judgment of the district court of this state." NRS 17.350 (emphasis added). We have explained that this language means that the act of domesticating a "foreign judgment in a Nevada district court" creates "a new action for the purposes of the statute of limitations." Trubenbach v. Amstadter, 109 Nev. 297, 301, 849 P.2d 288, 290 (1993).

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2022 NV 26, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/flangas-v-perfekt-marketing-llc-nev-2022.