TETTAMANTI & CALVO V. OPCION SOCIEDAD ANONIMA

SUPREME COURT CASES

Laws-info.com » Cases » Florida » Florida Third District Court » 2011 » TETTAMANTI & CALVO V. OPCION SOCIEDAD ANONIMA

State: Florida

Court: Florida Third District Court

Docket No: 11-0333

Case Date: 07/20/2011

Preview:Third District Court of Appeal
State of Florida, July Term, A.D. 2011
Opinion filed July 20, 2011. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing. ________________ No. 3D11-333 Lower Tribunal No. 07-41748 ________________

Enrique Tettamanti and Maria Cristina Calvo,
Appellants, vs.

Opcion Sociedad Anonima,
Appellee.

An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Jose M. Rodriguez, Judge. Dorta and Ortega, and Omar Ortega and Jessica Reyes, for appellants. Andrew C. Barnard, for appellee. Before RAMIREZ, SALTER, and EMAS, JJ. SALTER, J. Enrique Tettamanti and Maria Cristina Calvo appeal a circuit court order denying their motion to vacate an earlier order granting recognition to an

Argentine money judgment against them. Appellee, Opcion S.A., was the plaintiff in Argentina (seeking collection of a promissory note issued by Tettamanti and Calvo) and is now the judgment creditor in both Argentina and Florida. Tettamanti and Calvo previously and unsuccessfully appealed the order granting recognition to the final judgment entered in Argentina in 2007.1 While that appeal was pending, they obtained from the Florida circuit court a stay of enforcement of that final judgment. Opcion appealed the stay, and we vacated it.2 In this third bite at the same apple, Tettamanti and Calvo moved the Florida circuit court to vacate the recognition judgment under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.540 on the basis of a 2010 Argentine court order and letters rogatory (filed with the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida) allegedly establishing that the underlying lawsuit in Argentina was not yet concluded. The Florida circuit court denied that motion, and this appeal followed. Analysis As in the prior appeals involving these parties, Florida's Uniform Out-ofCountry Foreign Money-Judgment Recognition Act, sections 55.601 - .607, Florida Statutes (2008), is controlling. Recognition may be granted for a

"judgment of a foreign state granting or denying recovery of a sum of money, other
1 2

Tettamanti v. Opcion Sociedad Anonima, 23 So. 3d 727 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009).

Tettamanti v. Opcion Sociedad Anonima, 34 Fla. L. Weekly D917 (Fla. 3d DCA May 6, 2009). 2

than a judgment for taxes, a fine, or other penalty,"3 so long as the judgment is "final and conclusive and enforceable where rendered, even though an appeal therefrom is pending or is subject to appeal,"4 and provided the Florida court does not find grounds for nonrecognition under sections 55.605 or 55.6055.5 Once recognition has been granted, the judgment is a Florida judgment and may be enforced in the same manner as any other Florida money judgment. The important distinction is that a post-recognition collateral attack on the judgment ordinarily should be directed to the foreign court rather than the Florida court. The collateral attacks presented by Tettamanti and Calvo in Florida in this most recent challenge claimed: (1) the Argentine judgment is not really final or enforceable in Argentina, based on more recent pronouncements by the Argentine court; (2) the judgments in both jurisdictions were based on fraud by Opcion; and (3) the Florida judgment should not have converted the Argentine judgment debt from Argentine pesos to U.S. dollars at a rate of one to one. Regarding the first of these arguments, the certified translations of the more recent court orders in Argentina and the letters rogatory issued by the court there
3 4 5

Download TETTAMANTI & CALVO V. OPCION SOCIEDAD ANONIMA.pdf