In re Estate of Marcos Human Rights Litigation

910 F. Supp. 1470, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20375, 1995 WL 783024
CourtDistrict Court, D. Hawaii
DecidedNovember 30, 1995
DocketNo. MDL 840
StatusPublished

This text of 910 F. Supp. 1470 (In re Estate of Marcos Human Rights Litigation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Hawaii primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Estate of Marcos Human Rights Litigation, 910 F. Supp. 1470, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20375, 1995 WL 783024 (D. Haw. 1995).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

REAL, District Judge.

I. BACKGROUND

Close to 10,000 plaintiffs brought suit against the former President of the Philippines, Ferdinand E. Marcos (“Marcos”), for damages resulting from torture, summary execution and disappearance, in the form of a class action as well as individual actions. Marcos died while the cases were pending, and the Estate of Marcos (“Estate”) was substituted in Marcos’ place, with his widow, Imelda R. Marcos, and his son, Ferdinand E. Marcos, appearing as representatives of the Estate.

The case was tried before a jury in three phases: (1) liability, (2) exemplary damages, and (3) compensatory damages. After the jury found the Estate liable for acts alleged, the jury returned a verdict of about $1.2 billion in exemplary damages and about $800,000 in compensatory damages. The Estate has made no effort to satisfy the judgment which has been entered against it, claiming it has little or no assets.1

[1471]*1471The evidence at trial demonstrated that' the Estate had approximately $320 million deposited in Swiss bank accounts in Switzerland. In her answer to Plaintiffs Interrogatory No. 4, Imelda R. Marcos was asked to identify,

“each asset belonging to Ferdinand Marcos as of his date of death (whether real property, personal property, or property beneficially or equitably owned or owned in conjunction with others)----”2

Her response was,

“... I believe other assets of my late husband may be located in the following banks in Switzerland: Credit Suisse, Banque Paribas (Suisse), Lombard Odier & Cie, Swiss Bank Corporation, Swiss Volksbank, Fianz AG, Trade Development Bank. I believe the approximate amount which may be located in accounts in these banks to be in the range of $300 Million — $320 Million.3 Id.

In In re Estate of Ferdinand Marcos, Human Rights Litigation, 25 F.3d 1467 (9th Cir.1994), the Ninth Circuit affirmed this Court’s preliminary injunction prohibiting the Estate from transferring, secreting, or dissipating the estate’s assets during the trial. The Circuit similarly upheld this Court’s findings that the Estate has about $320 million in Swiss and Hong Kong banks. It wrote;

[T]he district court found (1) that an ultimate judgment would likely exceed $320 million, (2) that the Estate has about $320 million in assets in banks in Switzerland and Hong Kong, ...
The district court did not abuse its discretion in preliminarily enjoining the Estate from transferring, secreting or dissipating the Estate’s assets pendente lite. The district court applied correct law, and its factual findings (not challenged by the Estate) support the conclusion that money damages would be an inadequate remedy due to evidence that the Estate has engaged in a pattern of secreting or dissipating assets to avoid judgment. Id. at 1480.

After judgment was entered the Estate refused to cooperate in satisfaction of the judgment in this case and in other cases brought by the Philippine government and others to recover assets of the Estate.

Although the case was tried in the District of Hawaii, post-judgment, this Court signed an order directing the clerk to certify the final judgment for transfer to other districts. Plaintiffs have filed only one motion to transfer, to the Central District of California. The order directing the clerk to certify the final judgment for transfer to other districts was entered on March 14, 1995.

In an attempt to enforce the judgment this Court ordered that the representatives of the estate execute an assignment of the assets deposited in Swiss banks to the plaintiff class as partial satisfaction of the judgment entered on February 3, 1995.

III. DISCUSSION

A. Power to Enforce Judgment

In law settled, for more than a century, there can be no question that a court’s power to render a judgment includes the power to enforce that judgment. As early as 1867, the Supreme Court held,

“... [T]he rule is universal, that if the power is conferred to render the judgment or enter the decree, it also includes the power to issue proper process to enforce such judgment or decree. Express determination of this Court is, that the jurisdiction of a court is not exhausted by the rendition of the judgment, but continues until that judgment shall be satisfied.” Riggs v. Johnson County, 73 U.S. 166, 186, 18 L.Ed. 768, 6 Wall. 166 (1867). The dearth of published opinions in this area since the Riggs decision demonstrates just how well settled is the principle it enunciated.

See generally, 7 (part 2) Moore’s. Federal Practice ¶ 69.03[2] (2d ed. 1995). The Ninth Circuit recently restated the Riggs principle [1472]*1472in a case where a judgment creditor sued to collect on a judgment against an alter ego of the judgment debtors. Citing Riggs, the Ninth Circuit held that the District Court retains federal jurisdiction until the judgment has been enforced.

Consistant with Riggs and its progeny this Court clearly has the power to enforce plaintiffs’ class action judgment against the Estate. The issue of first impression here is whether this Court has the power to assign a judgment debtor’s right, title and interest in assets to the judgment creditor. Two separate and distinct lines of analysis demonstrate that it does.

B. Court’s Implied Power to Assign

First, implicit in the power to enforce a judgment is the power to use all legal means to provide relief to judgment creditors in an appropriate case. Assignment of funds is one of those means.

See Chicago Pneumatic Tool Co. v. O.V. Stonestreet, et al., 107 F.R.D. 674 (S.D.W.Va. 1985). In that case the plaintiff requested that the defendant be required,

“to convey or assign to the United States Marshal for the Southern District of West Virginia, such money, bank notes, securities, evidences of debt, other personal property, chooses in action or other intangible personal property as may be ordered by the said commissioner for enforcement and payment of the judgment including interest and costs, outstanding in the above matter.” Id. at 676.4

Despite defendant’s arguments about limitations on the power of magistrate judges, not here relevant, the Court concluded that in entry of any order requiring the debtor to transfer property to the creditor, the magistrate would only facilitate the District Court’s inherent power to enforce plaintiffs’ judgment.

Similarly this Court has the inherent power to order the Estate to assign its rights, title and interest to the Swiss bank accounts to plaintiffs, given the uncontroverted evidence that those assets belong to the debtor Estate.

An equally compelling basis for ordering the assignment is FRCP 69(a), also relied upon in

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Related

Riggs v. Johnson County
73 U.S. 166 (Supreme Court, 1868)
In Re Estate Of Ferdinand Marcos
25 F.3d 1467 (Ninth Circuit, 1994)
Philippine Export & Foreign Loan Guarantee Corp. v. Chuidian
218 Cal. App. 3d 1058 (California Court of Appeal, 1990)
Chicago Pneumatic Tool Co. v. Stonestreet
107 F.R.D. 674 (S.D. West Virginia, 1985)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
910 F. Supp. 1470, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20375, 1995 WL 783024, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-estate-of-marcos-human-rights-litigation-hid-1995.