'Due Process' Exception to Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Country Money Judgments

Article 53 of the New York Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR)—New York’s version of the Uniform Foreign Country Money-Judgments Recognition Act (the Recognition Act)—was enacted to “promote the efficient enforcement of New York judgments abroad by assuring foreign jurisdictions that their judgments would receive streamlined recognition here.”¹ In an Article 53 action, the Court of Appeals has noted, the holder of a money judgment rendered abroad “merely asks the court to perform its ministerial function of recognizing the foreign country money judgment and converting it into a New York judgment,”² and thereby making the CPLR’s full arsenal of enforcement methods available to the judgment creditor in a New York state or federal court.

One section of the statute, CPLR §5304, creates exceptions to the general rule that foreign country money judgments are liberally recognized and enforced here. Section 5304 lists two situations in which a court must not recognize the foreign country money judgment and eight in which a court may, in its discretion, choose not to recognize such a judgment. This article addresses the first ground for mandatory non-recognition—that “the judgment was rendered under a system which does not provide impartial tribunals or procedures compatible with the requirements of due process of law.”³ Courts rarely deny recognition under this “due process” exception, which applies only to judgments produced by a foreign system that is fundamentally flawed; judgment debtors may not avoid New York recognition based on claimed defects in a foreign court’s handling of a particular case. In addition, CPLR §5304(a)(1) is construed to incorporate the flexible “international concept of due process,” which does not require strict adherence to “due process” as understood in domestic constitutional law.