– Foreign judgments can be domesticated in Florida under the full faith and credit clause of the U.S. Constitution and the Florida Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act.
– There are two methods of enforcing a foreign judgment in Florida, each with a different statute of limitations.
– Pursuant to FEFJA Section 55.503, a foreign judgment may be recorded by the clerk of the circuit court of any county.
– Fla. Stat. § 95.11 states that an action on a foreign judgment shall be commenced within five (5) years.
– The statute of limitations on a Florida judgment is twenty (20) years, creating a discrepancy that is reconciled by acknowledging two different methods of enforcing a foreign judgment in Florida, each with a different statute of limitations. 1. Florida case law distinguishes between enforcing a foreign judgment in Florida through an action on a foreign judgment and through domesticating a foreign judgment.
2. An action on a foreign judgment must be brought within five years of the judgment’s entry in its original state, and the resulting Florida judgment is enforceable for twenty years.
3. Domesticating a foreign judgment can be done at any time while the judgment is still active in its original state, and the domesticated judgment is valid in Florida for up to twenty years.
4. Courts have ruled that domesticating a foreign judgment is not the same as bringing an action in a Florida court upon the foreign judgment.
5. A foreign judgment domesticated in Florida will be effective for the remaining time on the statute of limitations in the original state or twenty years, whichever is shorter. – The Florida Supreme Court ruled in Young v. McKenzie that proceedings supplementary do not constitute an action upon the judgment, so a different statute of limitations applies.
– An action upon a judgment is a new lawsuit filed with a court to enforce the judgment, while proceedings supplementary only seek to facilitate execution.
– When domesticating a foreign judgment in Florida, the new judgment will be effective for the remaining time left on the original judgment in the other state or twenty years, whichever is shorter.
– If an independent action is filed to extend the life of the original foreign judgment, it must be filed within five years of the original judgment’s entry date.
https://www.jimersonfirm.com/blog/2012/06/determining-the-statute-of-limitations-period-for-enforcing-a-foreign-judgment-in-florida/
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