394 A.2d 739 | Conn. Super. Ct. | 1977
This is an action brought to enforce a judgment obtained in Puerto Rico for a gambling debt. The defendant, Pasquale Arace ("Arace"), is a resident of Connecticut. During March of 1971 he visited the gambling casinos of the plaintiff, Hilton International Co. ("Hilton"), in Puerto Rico where he sought and was given gambling credit in the amount of $3300, secured by delivering to Hilton two checks endorsed in blank *523 made payable to himself. The credit was used solely for gambling. Hilton was unable to satisfy the gambling debts accumulated by Arace because he issued a stop payment order on the checks. Thereafter, in the Superior Court in Puerto Rico Hilton brought an in personam action against Arace for the collection of the gambling debt. In that action Arace, through the secretary of state of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, was served with process in Connecticut by registered mail with return receipt requested, as provided by rule 4.7 of the Puerto Rico rules of civil procedure. On February 9, 1973, a default judgment was entered against Arace by the Superior Court in Puerto Rico in the sum of $4125 plus costs. On June 3, 1975, Hilton instituted an action against Arace in the Court of Common Pleas in Hartford county to collect the Puerto Rican judgment together with interest and costs on that judgment.
Essentially, two issues are raised by this appeal. The first is whether the exercise of personal jurisdiction over Arace, a Connecticut resident, pursuant to the long-arm statute of Puerto Rico was violative of due process. If it was not, then the second issue is whether Connecticut is obligated to give full faith and credit under that clause of the United States constitution to the Puerto Rican judgment, based as it is on a gambling debt, where a strong state policy exists against such a claim.
The due process claim clearly involves the consideration of the "long-arm" statute of Puerto Rico, i.e., rule 4.7 of the rules of civil procedure of Puerto Rico. The relevant portion of rule 4.7 here is (a)(1) thereof which provides for personal jurisdiction over nonresidents "if the action or claim arises as a result of the following: (1) Such person or his agent carries out business transactions with Puerto Rico." Arace does not claim that the service *524
was inadequate or that notice was deficient, but rather he claims that the application of the Puerto Rican "long-arm" statute to give in personam jurisdiction over him in the circumstances of this case does not comport with federal constitutional due process requirements. Since Pennoyer v. Neff,
The case of San Juan Hotel Corporation v. Lefkowitz,
In Pennoyer v. Neff, supra, 727, the presence of the defendant within the territorial jurisdiction of the court was required for rendition of a judgment personally binding upon him. At the present time, however, "due process requires only that in order to subject a defendant to a judgment in personam, if he be not present within the territory of the forum, he have certain minimum contacts with it such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend `traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.'" International Shoe Co. v. Washington, supra, 316. The federal court for the district of Puerto Rico, in a case where rule 4.7 of the rules of civil procedure of Puerto Rico was directly involved, relying on International Shoe and McGee, *526
and quoting with approval from the San Juan Hotel Corporation v. Lefkowitz case, supra, made the point that the issue is not whether the nonresident upon whom jurisdiction is asserted is "doing business" in the forum but whether that person has the minimum contact with the territory of the forum in the light of International Shoe and McGee. Luce Co., S. en C. v. Alimentos Borinquenos, S. A.,
There can be no substance to any claim that the defendant's activities in Puerto Rico which gave rise to this action failed to satisfy the "minimum contacts" test of International Shoe necessary to make rule 4.7 operative as to him. He went to Puerto Rico and he admittedly went there as one of a large group of people on a gambling junket. He visited the Hilton gambling casino. He asked Hilton for and received gambling credit in the amount of $3300. In that context he gave Hilton two checks endorsed in blank payable to himself. The checks appeared to be dated about two weeks apart, one on March 5, 1971, and the other on March 20, 1971. The entire credit extended by Hilton on those checks was utilized by the defendant for gambling in Puerto Rico. As was concluded in Executive Air Services, Inc. v. Beech Aircraft Corporation,
The court turns now to Arace's claim that the full faith and credit clause of the United States constitution does not require that Connecticut recognize a Puerto Rican judgment based on a gambling debt because of Connecticut's strong state policy against such claims. Article IV, 1, of the United States constitution provides: "Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof." It has been said that "[m]anifestly, our statutes express an ancient and deep-rooted public policy" against gambling. Ciampittiello v. Campitello,
The case of Fauntleroy v. Lum,
There is no error.
In this opinion PARSKEY and D. SHEA, Js., concurred.