Court Where Judgment Is Attempted To Be Enforced May But Need Not Test Personal Jurisdiction In The Judgment Entering Court

Relying on the law in international litigation, the District Court in Massachusetts addressed the issue which court was obliged to determine whether the court entering a judgment had the requisite personal jurisdiction. , MBD No. 09-10264-PBS (D. Mass. 2011). At issue in the case was whether a Rhode Island court or a Massachusetts court should make the decision. The District Court analyzed one of the leading cases in the area, Indian Head Bank of Nashua v. Brunelle, 689 F.2d 245 (1st Cir. 1982). The case "clearly permits the court in which the foreign judgment is registered to decide a claims of lack of personal jurisdiction by the court which entered the judgment, it does not state that the court of registration is the only forum in which the issue can be raised".

Finding the matter commited to its discretion, where the cour must "balance '[j]udicial efficiency and comity among district courts", the Court here found that the court of putative enforcement should entertain the motion. The District Court so held based on two considerations: first, the Court relied "on the limited nature of the proceedings in the [judgment entering] court which would indicate" that judge's familiarity with...