AB 391

This bill adopts the 2005 Uniform Foreign-Country Money Judgments

Recognition Act adopted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform

State Laws. The bill requires the courts of this state to recognize a judgment of a

court outside of the United States that grants or denies the recovery of a sum of

money. Under the bill, to receive recognition by this state's courts, the foreign

country's judgment must be final, conclusive, and enforceable. The bill excludes

foreign country money judgments that are for taxes, for forfeitures or fines, or for

support, maintenance, or a property division in connection with a domestic relations

case.

Under the bill, this state's circuit courts are prohibited from recognizing a

foreign country money judgment that was rendered by a judicial system that does

not provide procedures compatible with the due process of law or that did not have

jurisdiction over the defendant or the subject matter. The bill prohibits a circuit court

from refusing to recognize the judgment for lack of personal jurisdiction for a number

of reasons, including if the defendant was personally served with process in the

foreign country, the defendant voluntarily appeared in the foreign court, the

defendant had agreed to submit to the jurisdiction of the foreign court, the defendant

was domiciled in the country where the foreign judgment was rendered, or the

defendant was a business that was organized under the laws of, or had its principal

place of business in, that foreign country.

The bill allows the circuit courts to refuse to recognize a foreign country money

judgment for a number of reasons, including if the defendant did not receive

sufficient timely notice of the proceedings, if the judgment was obtained by fraud, if

the claim for relief that resulted in the judgment is repugnant to the public policy of

this state, if the judgment conflicts with another final and conclusive judgment, or

if the circumstances of the rendering of the judgment raise substantial doubt about

the integrity of the foreign court that rendered the judgment.

The bill requires the circuit court, if it determines that the foreign country

money judgment deserves recognition, to give the judgment full faith and credit in

this state, and to enforce that judgment in the same manner as a judgment rendered

by a court in this state.