Carroll S. Dawson (Trustee of the Dawson Family Trust Dated December 5, 1989) v. Sonia Sonju; Carroll S. Dawson (Successor in Interest to William T. Dawson, Deceased) v. Sonia Sonju

Summary

The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed Montgomery County orders denying Sonia Sonju’s motions to strike or open two foreign judgments registered under Pennsylvania’s Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act. The court held that the 20-year execution period under 42 Pa.C.S. § 5529 begins with entry of the domesticated Pennsylvania judgment, rather than the original California judgment, and that the judgment creditor satisfied the Act’s documentation requirements.

Holdings

1. For a foreign judgment domesticated under Pennsylvania's Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, the phrase "entry of the judgment upon which the execution is to be issued" in 42 Pa.C.S. § 5529(a) refers to the entry of the domesticated Pennsylvania judgment, not the entry of the original judgment in the foreign state.
2. The appellees satisfied 42 Pa.C.S. § 4306(b) by filing the relevant foreign judgments and docket entries incidental to them; any initial defect in the Case 1 filing was cured by the subsequent attachment of the correct judgment and complete docket entries.
3. Sonju waived her claim that execution violated Pa.R.Civ.P. 3123.1 because she failed to include that issue in her Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) statement.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Pennsylvania's twenty-year limitation on execution against personal property under 42 Pa.C.S. § 5529(a) runs from the original or renewed foreign judgment or from the date the foreign judgment is domesticated in Pennsylvania.
2. Whether Dawson satisfied 42 Pa.C.S. § 4306(b)'s requirement to file a copy of the foreign judgment and the docket entries incidental thereto.
3. Whether Sonju waived her claim under Pa.R.Civ.P. 3123.1 by failing to include that issue in her Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) statement.

Disposition

affirmed