197 Conn. 189 | Conn. | 1985
This case essentially involves the question of whether the trial court, Hon. Joseph W. Bogdanski, state trial referee, erred when it determined that the plaintiff husband had not satisfied a judgment debt incurred from a valid and final judgment rendered by a court in this state, and, therefore, was not entitled to postjudgment relief. It is necessary to the disposition of the plaintiffs appeal to develop the underlying facts as found
The plaintiff, in 1979, instituted an action in Connecticut for dissolution of the parties’ marriage. The defendant counterclaimed seeking damages for the breach of the parties’ marriage contract.
Subsequent to a reargument by these parties, the trial court, D. Dorsey, J., on December 22, 1980, modified its earlier judgment involving the defendant’s counterclaim as follows: “Judgment modified to the extent that the parties shall cooperate in arranging [for] sale of real estate owned by the plaintiff which is subject to defendant’s lien in Iran and the net proceeds of such sale, when paid by the plaintiff to the defendant, shall be credited against the balance of any remaining judgment debt of the second count [of the defendant’s counterclaim].” (Emphasis added.) The plaintiff also did not appeal from this modification of the earlier judgment.
Contrary to the terms of the modified judgment, the plaintiff did not arrange for a sale of his Iranian property. Instead, as the trial court found, he “arranged for the removal of the lien by paying a sum of money into the Bank of Iran, in effect substituting a bond for the attached property.” On October 6,1981, agovern
In his appeal from the trial court’s decision denying his application for relief from enforcement of the Connecticut judgment against him, the plaintiff raises a cluster of claims that all primarily involve the question
The construction of a judgment is a question of law for the court. See 49 C. J.S., Judgments § 436; see also Grasso v. Frattolillo, 111 Conn. 209, 212, 149 A. 838 (1930); see generally Jordan, Marsh & Co. v. Patterson, 67 Conn. 473, 479, 35 A. 521 (1896). As a general rule, judgments are to be construed in the same fashion as other written instruments. Scoville v. Scoville, 179 Conn. 277, 282, 426 A.2d 271 (1979) (Healey, J., dissenting); Grasso v. Frattolillo, supra, 212; 46 Am. Jur. 2d, Judgments § 73; 49 C.J.S., Judgments, supra; 3 Stephenson, Conn. Civ. Proc. (Tait & Adomeit 1978) § 351e. “ ‘The determinative factor is the intention of the court as gathered from all parts of the judgment.’ ” Scoville v. Scoville, supra; 3 Stephenson, supra. “The interpretation of a judgment may involve the circumstances surrounding the making of the judgment.
In this action, the trial referee had reason to construe the prior judgment of the court, D. Dorsey, J., that had rendered judgment on the counterclaim in favor of the defendant, who was the “plaintiff” on the counterclaim. See Home Oil Co. v. Todd, 195 Conn. 333, 341, 487 A.2d 1095 (1985). Rendered following trial, the original judgment on the marriage contract was for $15,789.47. Judge Dorsey later modified that judgment, as stated above, to the effect that the “parties shall cooperate in arranging” a sale of the plaintiffs land in Iran and that “the net proceeds of such sale, when paid by the plaintiff to the defendant, shall be credited against the balance of any remaining judgment debt. . . . ” (Emphasis added.)
In the action tried before Judge Dorsey, the defendant’s counterclaim asserted a claim in contract for damages against the plaintiff. At that trial before Judge Bogdanski, the plaintiff testified that he knew of the “proceedings” undertaken in Iran at the time of the trial before Judge Dorsey and that he had so testified at that time. It was after the original dissolution judgment and after the “when paid” modification of that judgment on December 22, 1980, that the plaintiff claimed, as he argued in his brief and alleged in his
In rendering the modified judgment as described above, Judge Dorsey expected the parties to “cooperate” in arranging to sell the plaintiff’s land in Iran and ordered that the “net proceeds of such sale” would be credited to the judgment debt “when paid by the plaintiff to the defendant.” (Emphasis added.) Under the circumstances, and as found implicitly by the trial court in the present action, Judge Dorsey, having heard the parties at both the trial and modification hearing, clearly contemplated that the funds from the disposition of the plantiff s property in Iran had to be paid
If the plaintiff, prior to initiating this action, had any doubt regarding the terms of the modified judgment, he could have requested articulation by the trial court. See Fuessenich v. DiNardo, 195 Conn. 144, 157, 487 A.2d 514 (1985). This the plaintiff did not do. If the plaintiff was dissatisfied with either the original or the modified judgment, he could have then directly appealed in each instance, which he also did not do. The general rule is that a party may not attack collaterally in a postjudgment action a judgment from which he or she has not taken an appeal.
Because our disposition is determinative of this entire appeal, we need not address the various other claims raised by the plaintiff.
There is no error.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
The plaintiff’s brief refers to a number of “facts” in this case which the trial court did not find as facts. We have said that although our rules
See generally Dames & Moore v. Regan, 453 U.S. 654, 662-66, 101 S. Ct. 2972, 69 L. Ed. 2d 918 (1981); New England Merchants National Bank v. Iran Power Generation & Transmission Co., 502 F. Sup. 120, 122 (S.D.N.Y. 1980), rem’d for further proceedings, 646 F.2d 779 (2d Cir. 1981), on remand, 518 F. Sup. 69 (S.D.N.Y.), rev’d, 657 F.2d 3 (2d Cir. 1981).
Although the parties and the trial court refer to the defendant’s claim as a “cross complaint,” it is under our practice rules a counterclaim. See
The trial court, Hon. Joseph W. Bogdanski, state trial referee, specifically found that the defendant was “not seeking payment of the claim in Iran and is prepared to sign a release [to that effect] to the plaintiff. She seeks payment only of the judgment of this court.” The trial court further found that the “plaintiff now knows that the defendant cannot return to Iran, and that she cannot take the money out of Iran and bring it to the United States.” We find support for these conclusions in the record.
These various claims of the plaintiff include that the trial court, Hon. Joseph W. Bogdanski, state trial referee, erred in failing: to find the plaintiffs debt was discharged; to apply the law of “election of remedies”; to treat records as certified copies of official records of the Iranian Ministry of Justice; to find that enforcement of the modified judgment would be inequitable to the plaintiff; to find that the defendant was bound by the transactions that occurred in Iran where she initiated collection of the “mahr”; and to grant comity to Iranian law and procedure. The plaintiff also claims error in the trial court’s finding of fact regarding the “removal of a lien” on the plaintiffs Iranian property and in its conclusion of law that the “language of the modification of the judgment . . . ‘required’ that the plaintiff sell the land in Iran.” The plaintiff also asserts that the trial court did not “enter its decision upon the evidence” but rather did so “upon what appears to have been a predisposition relative to the matter in question.” Because our disposition of this appeal rests on the grounds that the record adequately supports the trial court’s conclusion that the modified judgment rendered by Judge Dorsey had not been satisfied by the plaintiff, we address directly in our decision only those issues that specifically relate to our holding. Regarding the plaintiff’s claim in his brief of “predisposition” on the part of the trial court, we note that our review of the record indicates that this assertion is unsubstantiated and lacking in any support. See Cameron v. Cameron, 187 Conn. 163, 444 A.2d 915 (1982). The trial of this matter occurred over the course of two days, during which time plaintiff’s trial counsel, who also is his appellate counsel, gave no indication that he believed that Judge Bogdanski should not decide this matter. Accordingly, we conclude this assertion is without support in fact or in law. We should also note that both counsel for the parties on this appeal also represented the parties in the dissolution action before Judge Dorsey, as well as in the action before Judge Bogdanski, from which this appeal before us was taken.
The defendant testifed at trial that her father, who had “some official capacity in Iran under the regime of the Shah,” was no longer alive. Neither the plaintiff nor the defendant have returned to Iran since the change of government there in 1979.
After taking judicial notice “of the relations now existing” between the United States and Iran, the trial court ruled that comity would not be given to an “Iranian rule” in this matter. Relying on Fletcher v. Peck, 10 U.S. (6 Cranch.) 87, 3 L. Ed. 162 (1810), for the proposition that state courts are bound by federal law, including treaties, the plaintiff argues that the granting of comity is not discretionary in the face of an existing federal treaty between the two concerned nations. The defendant, however, asserts the vitality of Hilton v. Guyot, 159 U.S. 113, 16 S. Ct. 139, 40 L. Ed. 95 (1895), in arguing for the proposition that the principle of comity is a matter of discretion and is based “fundamentally on the concept of reciprocity.” While we are aware that the purported demise of the federal common law in Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 58 S. Ct. 817, 82 L. Ed. 1188 (1938), and the refusal of some state courts to follow the reciprocity rule of Hilton; see, e.g., Johnston v. Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, 242 N.Y. 381, 152 N.E. 121 (1926); may have curtailed the vitality of Hilton v. Guyot, supra; see 2 Beale, Conflict of Laws (1935) § 434.2; Restatement, Foreign Relations Law of the United States (Revised) § 491, comment a and Reporters’ Notes 1 (tent, draft no. 4 1983); Peterson, “Foreign Country Judgments and the Second Restatement of Conflict of Laws,” 72 Colum. L. Rev. 220, 223-24, 233-38 (1972); von Mehren & Trautman, “Recognition of Foreign Adjudications: A Survey and A Suggested Approach,” 81 Harv. L. Rev. 1601, 1607 (1968); we need not address this issue because of the basis of our disposition of this appeal. We have previously recognized the flexibility of the comity doctrine with its underlying concern for fairness to the parties; Hao Thi Popp v. Lucas, 182 Conn. 545, 550, 438 A.2d 755 (1980); and we at least have acknowledged the reciprocity principle. Presutti v. Presutti, 181 Conn. 622, 629, 436 A.2d 299 (1980).
We need not rest our resolution of this matter on the defendant’s contentions that the present action is an impermissible collateral attack on a valid final judgment; see, e.g., Meinket v. Levinson, 193 Conn. 110, 474 A.2d 454 (1984); Glemboski v. Glemboski, 184 Conn. 602, 440 A.2d 242 (1981); and is barred by the doctrines of former adjudication; see, e.g., In re Juvenile Appeal (83-DE), 190 Conn. 310, 460 A.2d 1277 (1983); Lehrman v. Prague, 115 Conn. 484, 162 A. 15 (1932); although the trial court implied that such contentions had merit. See Hubbard v. Manning, Kirby 256 (1787) (matters that could have been pleaded in the original action cannot be pleaded to a scire facias).
The plaintiff suggests that “[i]t is possible to construe the complaint . . . [in this action] as a common law writ of audita querela” and that the suit was therefore properly brought. The plaintiffs “complaint,” however, seeks relief in the form of a declaratory judgment, a permanent injunction, and “such other relief as in equity may appertain.” The ancient writ of audita is, as the plaintiff states, one of legal rather than equitable origin. See RusseU