35 N.W.2d 425 | Minn. | 1948
The trial court found that the Wisconsin judgment or decree had never been modified, amended, changed, altered, rescinded, vacated, reversed, or suspended in any way at any time and that the time for appeal from the judgment had expired under the laws of Wisconsin. Judgment was ordered for plaintiff for the full amount of such support payments from July 1, 1920, through January 1930, the month during which the minor son reached his majority. This appeal is from an order denying defendant's motion for a new trial.
The chief defense asserted by defendant, and the one upon which we choose to rest our decision, is that this is an action on a foreign judgment, and, as such, that it is barred by the Minnesota statute of limitations, M.S.A.
"No action shall be maintained upon a judgment or decree of a court of the United States, or of any state or territory thereof, unless begun within ten years after the entry of such judgment."
With reference to the period of time a domestic judgment requiring the payment of money shall survive and the lien thereof continue in Minnesota, §
"* * * Such judgment shall survive, and the lien thereof continue, for the period of ten years next after its entry,and no longer." (Italics supplied.)
Defendant's pleading brings into issue the statute of limitations on this type of action. Statutes which limit the period within which actions may be commenced are generally considered procedural, and therefore the law of the forum is applied. Weston v. Jones,
That case involved an attempt to compel by contempt proceedings the payment of arrearages in support money after the child had reached its majority. After holding that this was not the proper remedy, but that the wife was relegated to an independent action either of debt upon a record or judgment or in restitution, the court said that the proper statute of limitation to apply to the judgment involved was Wisconsin St. 1947, § 330.16. That statute provides a 20-year limitation on "An action upon a judgment or decree of any court of record of this state or of the United States sitting within this state." The court then went on to say (
"* * * While the portions of the divorce judgment in this case requiring the payment of support money were subject to change and modification during the minority of the children the divorce court for reasons heretofore outlined completely lost jurisdiction at majority to deal with the amounts due and these became fixed and beyond the control of the court. The judgment and its various amendments fixed defendant's duty to pay sums certain in money and the amount due is arrived at by a computation based upon the record."
Further, our court has held that similar foreign judgments, subject to modification or cancellation and payable in installments, are absolute and final as to all installments which have accrued under the judgment as long as the judgment is absolute in its terms and remains unmodified, or, at least, until an application for modification is made. Ladd v. Martineau,
This suit is properly viewed as an action on a foreign judgment, and the proper statute of limitations to apply is §
It follows that after January 22, 1940, action on this Wisconsin judgment was outlawed, and the judgment wasfunctus officio in Minnesota. Therefore this action, commenced in 1946, cannot be maintained.
Reversed.