United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Roche v. McDonald, 275 U.S. 449 (1928)

Roche v. McDonald

No. 38

Submitted October 14, 1927

Decided January 3, 1928

275 U.S. 449

Syllabus

1. A writ of error will not lie under Jud.Code, § 237(a), to review the judgment of a state court upon the ground that it failed to give full faith and credit, as required by Art. IV, § 1, of the Constitution, to the judgment of a court of another state, but the papers may be treated as an application for certiorari, and that writ may be issued thereon. P. 275 U. S. 450.

2. The Full Faith and Credit Clause requires that the judgment of a state court which had jurisdiction of the parties and the subject matter, shall be given in the courts of every other state the same credit, validity, and effect as it has in the state where it was rendered, and be equally conclusive upon the merits, and that only such defenses as would be good to a suit thereon in that state can be relied on in the courts of any other state. P. 275 U. S. 451.

3. R. recovered a judgment by default against M in an action on a Washington judgment in an Oregon Court in which M, after being personally served while temporarily in Oregon, had appeared and demurred to the complaint, but had elected not to plead further when the demurrer was overruled. In a subsequent action on the Oregon judgment in Washington, the Washington court refused to enforce it upon the ground that the original Washington judgment had expired and become a nullity by lapse of time under the statutes of that state, before the Oregon judgment was rendered, so that the latter was without legal foundation, and, as it would have been void if rendered under like circumstances in a court of Washington, could be given no force or effect when sued upon in Washington. Held error, since the Oregon judgment, even though erroneous, was valid and conclusive between the parties in Oregon, and, under the Full Faith and Credit Clause, was equally conclusive in Washington.

136 Wash. 322 reversed.

Certiorari to a judgment of the Supreme Court of Washington denying relief in an action on an Oregon judgment. The writ of error is dismissed and certiorari granted.

Page 275 U. S. 450