Can Plaintiff file for Declaratory on personal jurisdiction?

[tokyojoe]

I recently won a default judgment against a corporation in a foreign state because the defendant never responded to the complaint. Defendant is apparently taking a Collateral Attack stategy and will argue lack of personal jurisdiction by the NH court if I attempt to domesticate the judgment in the foreign state. I have already filed in this court a motion to "force payment". In NH it's called a motion for periodic payment where the court forces the defendant to appear under threat of arrest to determine if they have an ability to pay the judgment. Of course, it is unlikely that the defendant is going to show up for this court hearing either since they are out of state and do not believe the court has personal jurisdiction over them.

I have little doubt that I will prevail in a personal jurisdiction argument before any court. My question is, rather than waiting to domesticate in the foreign state and argue personal jurisdiction there, can I (as plaintiff) at this point file a motion for declaratory judgement with the NH small claims court to find personal jurisdiction over the defendant such that they would be forced to either abide by the judgment, or appear for the "payment" hearing that will be scheduled sometime in the summer.

Specifically,

1) Can a plaintiff bring a declaratory judgment motion against a defendant for relief pertaining to personal jurisdiction, when the plaintiff knows the defendants strategy is a collateral attack.

2) Given that the judgment has already been awarded but the hearing for payment is pending, is it too late to file for a declaratory on personal jurisdiction?


Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

 

[dee_dub]

I do not know the specific rules involved here, but as a general matter of principle, if the defendant is contesting jurisdiction, they would also contest the court's jurisdiction to award the declaratory judgment you seek. You can bring the motion, but what is it going to get you? The plaintiff still refuses to attorn, and you are still forced to go to their home state to enforce your award.

I would query whether this is available at all in small claims court. How did you even manage to sue an out-of-state defendant in NH small claims?

 

[tokyojoe]

Since I have yet to find an example where the plaintiff filed for declaratory of personal jurisdiction on a foreign defendant, I can't exactly answer your question on what I think it gets me. I agree that if a declaratory against the defendant is as non-enforceable as the original judgement (in terms of them being in a foreign state), then it gets me nothing and is not worth the time or effort.

However, everything I've read states that declaratory's are binding on both parties. If the declaratory is binding even if the defendant does not respond to it (declaratory by default?) then naturally I would still have the issue of collecting the judgment, but the defendants supposed justification for not responding to the case or judgment would vanish. This would force the defendant to appeal the case on the merits (which possibly would not be heard because of the passage of time) and almost certainly would not be worth it in terms of cost since the original award is minimal. In short, I think if I succeed on the declaratory, the issue is over and the defendant would simply pay the award. Up to this point, they have ignored everything because the amount I sued for isn't worth their investing any time in (company has annual revenues measured in tens of millions) and it costs them nothing to simply ignore it under a strategy of collateral attack.

Regarding your question of managing to sue an out-of-state defendant in small claims, there's nothing in the rules of NH small claims court that states the defendant has to be in-state. The court is likely aware that the defendant will either take a collateral attack strategy, or fight jurisdiction.

 

[dee_dub]

I'm surprised to learn that about NH small claims court.

Good luck to you.