Alterna Aircraft V B Ltd. v. SpiceJet Ltd.

Summary

The Washington Supreme Court holds that, absent general or specific personal jurisdiction, a judgment creditor seeking recognition of a foreign-country money judgment under chapter 6.40A RCW must establish that the judgment debtor has property in Washington. The court reverses the lower courts’ jurisdictional ruling and remands for an evidentiary hearing concerning whether SpiceJet has property in Washington. A dissent argues that the Uniform Foreign-Country Money Judgments Recognition Act requires recognition when its statutory criteria are satisfied and does not impose an additional Washington jurisdictional nexus.

Holdings

1. A Washington court must have jurisdiction to entertain an original action seeking recognition of a foreign-country money judgment under chapter 6.40A RCW. The recognition action is not purely ministerial because the court must exercise judgment concerning statutory grounds for recognition and nonrecognition.
2. In the absence of general or specific jurisdiction over the judgment debtor, the debtor must have property in Washington before a foreign-country money judgment may be recognized under chapter 6.40A RCW.
3. The record required an evidentiary hearing to determine whether SpiceJet had property in Washington sufficient to establish jurisdiction.

Questions Presented

1. Whether a Washington court may recognize a foreign-country money judgment under chapter 6.40A RCW without general or specific personal jurisdiction over the judgment debtor and without property of the debtor in Washington.
2. Whether, in the absence of general or specific jurisdiction, the judgment creditor must establish that the foreign judgment debtor has property in Washington to avoid dismissal under CR 12(b)(2).
3. Whether an evidentiary hearing was necessary to determine whether SpiceJet had sufficient property in Washington to establish the required jurisdictional nexus.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded