Peckham v. Ronrico Corp.

14 F.R.D. 181, 1953 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3807
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedMarch 31, 1953
DocketCiv. No. 4639
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 14 F.R.D. 181 (Peckham v. Ronrico Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Peckham v. Ronrico Corp., 14 F.R.D. 181, 1953 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3807 (prd 1953).

Opinion

RUIZ-NAZARIO, District Judge.

This cause came up for hearing on the Motion to Intervene filed on March 9, 1949 by R. E. Peckham, in the capacity of assignee in trust of all the members of the last Board of Directors of Augusta Holding Corporation in their capacity of trustees of its properties upon the dissolution thereof by operation of the laws of the State of Florida. An Intervening Claim, supplemented by four exhibits, marked “E” to “H” were filed j ointly with said motion.

An additional motion entitled “Supplement to the Intervening Claim”, attaching, as Exhibit “I”, a copy of the Trust Agreement of February 1947 entered between said intervenor and his assignors in trust, was filed on October 31, 1952.

A motion in opposition to intervention, supplemented with one exhibit, was filed by defendants in September 1952. The exhibit attached to this last motion is a certificate, of the Clerk of the Florida Court which rendered the 1932 Judgment on which intervenor bases his intervening claim here, to the effect that no execution has been ever sued out on said judgment.

R. E. Peckham, who, oddly enough, is also plaintiff in this cáse as assignee for the creditors of the Meyer-Kiser Bank comes before the Court with this motion to intervene, but now in the role of assignee of the last board of directors of the long dissolved Augusta I-Iolding Corporation, who assigned to said R. E. Peckham, plaintiff herein, a money judgment obtained on December 30, 1932, against the defendant Ferd S. Meyer in the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, County of Dade the double assignee contends that he is entitled to intervene (A) as a matter of right, (B) because there are numerous questions of law and fact common to the complaint and to the Intervening Claim.

A

Even if this action were conceded to be one involving the distribution or other disposition of property in the custody of, or subject to the control or disposition of the Court or any officer thereof under Rule 24(a) (3), Fed.Rules Civ.Proc. 28 U.S.C.A., applicant cannot lawfully claim that he would be adversely affected by any order or decree cutting off any rights he may allege to have in and to the res in controversy, for applicant has no rights flowing from the 1932 judgment against Ferd S. Meyer, the same being prescribed by lapse of time. It is well settled that no action can be brought on a judgment if the statute of limitations of the forum has run. 3 Beale, Conflict of Laws p. 1625; McEl[183]*183moyle v. Cohen, 13 Pet. 311, 38 U.S. 311, 10 L.Ed. 177, from which I quote:

“Prescription is a thing of policy, growing out of the experience of its necessity; and the time after which suits or actions shall be barred, has been, from a remote antiquity, fixed by every nation, in virtue of that sovereignty by which it exercises its legislation for all persons and property within its jurisdiction. This being the foundation of the right to pass statutes of prescription or limitation, may not our states, under our system, exercise this right, in virtue of their sovereignty? or is it to be conceded to them in every other particular, than that of barring the remedy upon judgments of other states, by the lapse of time ? The states use this right upon judgments rendered in their own courts; and the common law raises the presumption of the payment of a judgment, after the lapse of twenty years. May they not, then, limit the time for remedies upon the judg’tnents of other states, and alter the common law by statute, fixing a less or larger time for such presumption, and altogether barring suits upon such judgments, if they shall not be brought within the time stated in the statute? It certainly will not be contended, that judgment-creditors of other states shall be put upon a better footing, in regard to a state’s right to legislate in this particular, than the judgment-creditors of the state in which the judgment was obtained. And if this right so exists, may it not be exercised, by a state’s restraining the remedy upon the judgment of another state, leaving those of its own courts unaffected by a statute of limitations, but subject to the common-law presumption of payment, after the lapse of twenty years? In other words, may not the law of a state fix different times for barring the remedy in a suit upon a judgment of another state, and for those of its own tribunals? We use this mode of argument, to show the unreasonableness of a contrary doctrine. But the point might have been shortly dismissed, with this safe declaration, that there is no direct constitutional inhibition upon the states, nor any clause in the constitution from which it can be even plausibly inferred, that the states may not legislate upon the remedy in suits upon the judgments of other states, exclusive of all interference with their merits. It being settled, that the statute of limitations may bar recoveries upon foreign judgments; that the effect intended to be given, under our constitution, to judgments, is, that they are conclusive only as regards the merits; the common-law principle then applies to suits upon them, that they must be ■brought within the period prescribed by the local law, the lex fori, or the suit will be barred. Counsel have relied, to establish a contrary doctrine, upon Morton v. Naylor, 1 Hill (S.C.) 439. But that case was obviously decided upon a misconception of the learned judges of the decision of this court in the case of Mills v. Duryee, 7 Cranch 481. It is, therefore, our opinion, that the statute of limitations of Georgia can be pleaded to an action in that state, founded upon a judgment rendered in the state of South Carolina.” 13 Pet. at pages 326-327.

And in equity the Federal Court since Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188, must be guided by the state statutes of limitations to find a claimant guilty of laches. Guaranty Trust Co. v. York, 326 U.S. 99, 65 S.Ct. 1464, 89 L.Ed. 2079.

In Puerto Rico, a judgment for the recovery of money may not be enforced or carried into execution after the lapse of five years from the date of its entry, neither by leave of court, nor by judgment for that purpose, founded on supplemental proceedings. (Sec. 243, Code of Civil Procedure of Puerto Rico, 1933 Ed.) Were it contended that the intervening claim does not fall within the category of supplemental proceedings-contemplated by the above Section, then it would necessarily [184]*184fall within the category of personal actions for which no special term of prescription is fixed and which, under the provisions of art. 1864, Civil Code of Puerto Rico, 1930 Ed. are prescribed after fifteen years. Even assuming that applicant’s requested intervention were a real action “with regard to personal property”, which it is not, it would be stale, as these prescribe after six years. (Art. 1862, Civil Code Ibid). Although it has been held that commencement of a class action, even a spurious class action, halts the running of the statute of limitations as against the members of the class, York v. Guaranty Trust Co. of New York, 2 Cir., 143 F.2d 503, reversed on other grounds in Guaranty Trust Co. v. York, supra, this rule obviously applies only ■ to cases where the several actions were alive at the time of commencement of the principal action.

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Related

Peckham v. Ronrico Corp.
211 F.2d 727 (First Circuit, 1954)

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Bluebook (online)
14 F.R.D. 181, 1953 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3807, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/peckham-v-ronrico-corp-prd-1953.