In re the Arbitration between A/S Siljestad & Hideca Trading, Inc.

96 F.R.D. 7, 34 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 871, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12003
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedMarch 25, 1982
DocketNo. 81 Civ. 6315 (WCC)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 96 F.R.D. 7 (In re the Arbitration between A/S Siljestad & Hideca Trading, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re the Arbitration between A/S Siljestad & Hideca Trading, Inc., 96 F.R.D. 7, 34 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 871, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12003 (S.D.N.Y. 1982).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

CONNER, District Judge:

On July 23 and 27, 1981, an arbitration panel awarded A/S Siljestad (“Siljestad”) in excess of $300,000 on various claims against Hideca Trading Inc. (“Hideca”). Although Hideca contested only a portion of this award, it paid none of it, and the matter came before this Court. By Opinion and Order dated December 18, 1981, 541 F.Supp. 58, this Court granted Siljestad’s petition to confirm the arbitration award. After the calculation of interest, judgment was entered on January 5, 1982 for an amount in excess of $400,000. Thereafter Hideca filed a Notice of Appeal, contesting about 25% of'the judgment. Hideca continues, however, to refuse to pay any part of that portion of the judgment which it concedes it owes to Siljestad.

Hideca has not posted a supersedeas bond and has not sought to stay execution of the judgment pending its appeal. See Rule 62, F.R.Civ.P., and Rule 8, F.R.App.P. Siljestad is accordingly attempting to enforce the judgment. However, because Hideca’s assets lie without this district, Siljestad seeks to register the judgment elsewhere pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1963, which provides in pertinent part:

“A judgment in an action for the recovery of money or property now or hereafter entered in any district court which has become final by appeal or expiration of time for appeal may be registered in any other district by filing therein a certified copy of such judgment. A judgment so registered shall have the same effect as a judgment of the district court of the district where registered and may be enforced in like manner.”

[8]*8Because of the pendency of Hide-ca’s appeal, the Judgment Clerk of this Court refused to issue a “Form 101” necessary for the registration of this Court’s judgment in another district. Siljestad accordingly seeks an order of this Court compelling the Clerk to issue a Form 101. The question presented is whether the pendency of an appeal, without the posting of a supersedeas bond, prevents the registration of a judgment pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1963.

We have discovered so few decisions bearing on this question that all of them may be summarized here. In Abegglen v. Burnham, 94 F.Supp. 484 (D. Utah 1950), the court held that the pendency of an appeal prevented the registration of the judgment notwithstanding the absence of a supersedeas bond. In ruling that the language “final by appeal” means “disposed of by appeal” and not “final subject to appeal,” the court noted that Section 1963 was based upon Rule 77 of the recommended rules of the Supreme Court’s Advisory Committee on Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (1937), which provided for registration of judgments which have “become final ... by mandate on appeal ... . ” Moreover, the court reasoned that permitting extra-district registration during the pendency of an appeal would place an undue burden upon judgment debtors to seek stays of execution in potentially many forums.

In Dorey v. Dorey, 77 F.R.D. 721 (N.D.Ala.1978), the court entered judgment against the defendant in a suit for enforcement of a California judgment. The defendant appealed that decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, but did not seek to stay execution or post a supersedeas bond. During the proceedings before the Alabama federal court, the defendant changed his residence from Alabama to Texas. Accordingly, the plaintiff sought an order directing the clerk to issue a certificate of judgment for registration in the appropriate Texas district pursuant to Section 1963. The court granted the motion notwithstanding the pendency of the defendant’s appeal. The court’s decision was alternatively based on (1) the defendant’s consent to the registration of the judgment in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, and (2) the Court’s view that Section 1963 would be unconstitutional if it were to be read as permitting a judgment debtor to avoid registration during the pendency of an appeal without obtaining a stay of execution or posting a supersedeas bond. Specifically the court found that if Section 1963 was not interpreted as precluding registration during the pendency of an appeal only where a supersedeas bond had been posted, (a) the “constitutional right of a judgment creditor, when no stay has been issued pursuant to law, to collect his judgment” would be denied without due process of law and in violation of the privileges and immunities clause of the Constitution, id. at 723-25, (b) the resulting superior right of nonresidents to evade or postpone payment of their judgment debts would constitute a denial of equal protection of the laws, id. at 725, (c) the statute would be violative of the doctrine of separation of powers by virtue of its effect in depriving a federal court judgment of its power outside the district, id., (d) the statute would be impermissibly inconsistent with the Federal Rules of Civil and Appellate Procedure, which evidence a policy of permitting an automatic stay of execution only upon the filing of a supersedeas bond, id., and (e) the statute would deny full faith and credit to the judgment, where federal jurisdiction was premised upon diversity of citizenship, id. The court consequently determined that Section 1963 must be read as precluding registration during the pendency of an appeal only where a supersedeas bond has been posted.

In Goldsmith v. Midwest Energy Co., 90 F.R.D. 249 (N.D.Ohio 1980), the court refused to accept registration of a judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia where an appeal from that judgment was pending, even though no supersedeas bond had been posted in connection with the appeal. The court found that Section 1963 prevented registration “until the case has been disposed of by appeal,” citing Abegglen, supra, and Lipton v. Schmertz, 68 F.R.D. 249 (S.D.[9]*9N.Y.1974). The reliance on Lipton appears to have been misplaced. It is true that in that ease Judge Motley of this Court stated that “[a]s long as an appeal of substance is pending, § 1963 bars registration of the judgment in a foreign district.” Id. at 250. There, however, a supersedeas bond had been posted, and thus Judge Motley was not confronted with the question presented here.

Finally, in Kaplan v. Hirsh, 91 F.R.D. 106 (D.Md.1981), the court held Section 1963 to be inapplicable to a judgment from which an appeal has been taken and is pending, notwithstanding the absence of a supersedeas bond. As to the constitutional considerations outlined in Dorey, supra, the court noted:

“While this Court cannot agree with all of the Dorey court’s contentions as to the constitutional questions addressed in that opinion, ... it need not address these contentions in any great detail. All of the constitutional problems raised by the Dorey court are premised on the assumption that a failure to register a foreign district’s judgment will prevent extraterritorial execution on the judgment, in effect operating as a stay. That crucial premise is, however, invalid.
“As the Dorey court itself recognized, 77 F.R.D.

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96 F.R.D. 7, 34 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 871, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12003, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-arbitration-between-as-siljestad-hideca-trading-inc-nysd-1982.