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Opinion of the court.

to the case, and the decision was that the record of a State court, duly authenticated under the act of Congress, must have in every other court of the United States such faith and credit as it had in the State court from whence it was taken, and that nil debet was not a good plea to such an action.

Congress, say the court, have declared the effect of the record by declaring what faith and credit shall be given to it. Adopting the language of the court in that case, we say that the defendant had full notice of the suit, and it is beyond all doubt that the judgment of the court was conclusive upon the parties in that State. "It must, therefore, be conclusive here also." Unless the merits are open to exception and trial between the parties, it is difficult to see how the plea of fraud can be admitted as an answer to the action.

3. Domestic judgments, under the rules of the common law, could not be collaterally impeached or called in question if rendered in a court of competent jurisdiction. It could only be done directly by writ of error, petition for new trial, or by bill in chancery. Third persons only, says Saunders, could set up the defence of fraud or collusion, and not the parties to the record, whose only relief was in equity, except in the case of a judgment obtained on a cognovit or a warrant of attorney.*

Common law rules placed foreign judgments upon a dif ferent footing, and those rules remain, as a general remark, unchanged to the present time. Under these rules a foreign judgment was prima facie evidence of the debt, and it was open to examination not only to show that the court in which it was rendered had no jurisdiction of the subject-matter, but also to show that the judgment was fraudulently obtained. Recent decisions, however, in the parent country, hold that even a foreign judgment is so far conclusive upon a defend ant that he is prevented from alleging that the promises upon which it is founded were never made or were obtained by fraud of the plaintiff.†

* 2 Saunders on Pleading and Evidence, part 1, p. 63.

Bank of Australasia v. Nias, 4 English Law and Equity, 252.

Opinion of the court.

4. Cases may be found in which it is held that the judgment of a State court, when introduced as evidence in the tribunals of another State, are to be regarded in all respects as domestic judgments. On the other hand, another class of cases might be cited in which it is held that such judgments in the courts of another State are foreign judgments, and that as such the judgment is open to every inquiry to which other foreign judgments may be subjected under the rules of the common law. Neither class of these decisions is quite correct. They certainly are not foreign judgments under the Constitution and laws of Congress in any proper sense, because they "shall have such faith and credit given to them in every other court within the United States as they have by law or usage in the courts of the State from whence" they were taken, nor are they domestic judgments in every sense, because they are not the proper foundation of final process, except in the State where they were rendered. Besides, they are open to inquiry as to the jurisdiction of the court and notice to the defendant; but in all other respects. they have the same faith and credit as domestic judgments.*

Subject to those qualifications, the judgment of a State court is conclusive in the courts of all the other States wherever the same matter is brought in controversy. Established rule is, that so long as the judgment remains in force it is of itself conclusive of the right of the plaintiff to the thing adjudged in his favor, and gives him a right to process, mesne or final, as the case may be, to execute the judgment.†

5. Exactly the same point was decided in the case of Benton v. Burgot,‡ which, in all respects, was substantially like the present case. The action was debt on judgment recovered in a court of another State, and the defendant appeared and pleaded nil debet, and that the judgment was obtained by fraud, imposition, and mistake, and without consideration.

* D'Arcy v. Ketchum et al., 11 Howard, 165; Webster v. Reid, Id. 437. Voorhees v. United States Bank, 10 Peters, 449; Huff v. Hutchingson, 14 Howard, 588.

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Opinion of the court.

Plaintiff demurred to those pleas, and the court of original jurisdiction gave judgment for the defendant. Whereupon the plaintiff brought error, and the Supreme Court of the State, after full argument, reversed the judgment and directed judgment for the plaintiff. Domestic judgments, say the Supreme Court of Maine, even if fraudulently obtained, must nevertheless be considered as conclusive until reversed or set aside.* Settled rule, also, in the Supreme Court of Ohio, is that the judgment of another State, rendered in a case in which the court had jurisdiction, has all the force in that State of a domestic judgment, and that the plea of fraud is not available as an answer to an action on the judgment. Express decision of the court is, that such a judgment can only be impeached by a direct proceeding in chancery.†

Similar decisions have been made in the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and it is there held that a party to a judgment cannot be permitted in equity, any more than at law, collaterally to impeach it on the ground of mistake or fraud, when it is offered in evidence against him in support of the title which was in issue in the cause in which it was recovered. Whole current of decisions upon the subject in that State seems to recognize the principle that when a cause of action has been instituted in a proper forum, where all matters of defence were open to the party sued, the judgment is conclusive until reversed by a superior court having jurisdiction of the cause, or until the same is set aside by a direct proceeding in chancery.§ State judgments, in courts of competent jurisdiction, are also held by the Supreme Court of Vermont to be conclusive as between the parties until the same are reversed or in some manner set aside and annulled. Strangers, say the court, may show that they were collusive or fraudulent; but they bind parties and privies.

*Granger v. Clark, 22 Maine, 130.

† Anderson v. Anderson, 8 Ohio, 108.

B. & W. Railroad v. Sparhawk, 1 Allen, 448; Homer v. Fish, 1 Pickering, 435.

8 McRae v. Mattoon, 13 Pickering, 57. || Atkinsons v. Allen, 12 Vermont, 624.

Syllabus.

Redfield, Ch. J., said, in the case of Hammond v. Wilder,* that there was no case in which the judgment of a court of record of general jurisdiction had been held void, unless for a defect of jurisdiction. Less uniformity exists in the reported decisions upon the subject in the courts of New York, but all those of recent date are to the same effect. Take, for example, the case of Embury v. Conner,† and it is clear that the same doctrine is acknowledged and enforced. Indeed, the court, in effect, say that the rule is undeniable that the judgment or decree of a court possessing competent jurisdiction is final, not only as to the subject thereby determined, but as to every other matter which the parties might have litigated in the cause, and which they might have had decided.‡ Same rule prevails in the courts of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and in most of the other States.§

For these reasons our conclusion is, that the fourth plea of the defendant is bad upon general demurrer, and that there is no error in the record. The judgment of the Circuit Court, therefore,

AFFIRMED WITH COSTS.

GREEN . VAN BUSKIRK.

1. Where personal property is seized and sold under an attachment, or other writ, issuing from a court of the State where the property is, the question of the liability of the property to be sold under such writ, must be determined by the law of that State, notwithstanding the domicil of all the claimants to the property may be in another State.

2. In a suit in any other State growing out of such seizure and sale, the effect of the proceedings by which it was sold, with title to the property, must be determined by the law of the State where those proceedings were had.

3. The refusal of the State court in which such suit may be tried, to give

* 23 Vermont, 346.

Dobson v. Pearce, 2 Kernan, 165.

† 3 Comstock, 522.

Hollister v. Abbott, 11 Foster, 448; Rathbone v. Terry, 1 Rhode Island, 7; Topp The Bank, 2 Swan, p. 188; Wall v. Wall, 28 Mississippi, 413.

Statement of the case.

to the proceedings of the court, under which the property was sold, the same effect in their operation upon the title, as they have by law and usage in the State where they took place, constitutes a proper case for review in this court, under the twenty-fifth section of the Judiciary Act.

MOTION to dismiss a writ of error to the Supreme Court of the State of New York.

The Constitution of the United States declares (Section 1, Article IV) that full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State; and that Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.

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Under the power here conferred, Congress, by act of 1790,* provides that records, authenticated in a way which it prescribes, shall have such faith and credit given to them in every other court of the United States, as they have by law or usage in the court from which they are taken.”

With this provision of the Constitution and this law in force, Bates being the owner of certain iron safes at Chicago, in the State of Illinois, on the 3d day of November, 1857, executed and delivered, in the State of New York, to Van Buskirk and others, a chattel mortgage of them. On the 5th day of the same month Green caused to be levied on the same safes a writ of attachment, sued by him out of the proper court in Illinois, against the property of Bates. The attachment suit proceeded to judgment, and the safes were sold in satisfaction of Green's debt. Van Buskirk, Green, and Bates, were all citizens of New York. Green's attachment was levied on the safes as the property of Bates, before the possession was delivered to Van Buskirk, and before the mortgage from Bates to him was recorded, and before notice of its existence.

Van Buskirk afterwards sued Green, in the New York courts, for the value of the safes thus sold under his attachment, and Green pleaded the proceeding in the court of Illinois in bar of the action. In this suit thus brought by him

* May 26 1 Stat at Large, 122.

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