Milliken v. Meyer, 311 U.S. 457 (1940)

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Milliken v. Meyer

No. 66

Argued December 13, 1940
Decided December 23, 1940
311 U.S. 457

CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF COLORADO

Syllabus

1. Where its judgment is challenged in another State, the jurisdiction of a state court over the parties or the subject matter is open to inquiry. P. 462.

2. If the judgment on its face appears to be a record of a court of general jurisdiction, then jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter will be presumed, unless disproved by extrinsic evidence or by the record itself. P. 462.

3. Where a judgment of a state court having jurisdiction of the parties and the subject matter is challenged in another State, the full faith and credit clause of the Federal Constitution precludes any inquiry into the merits of the cause of action, the logic or consistency of the decision, or the validity of the legal principles on which the judgment is based. P. 462.

4. A judgment in personam rendered in the State of his domicile against a defendant who, pursuant to a statute of that State providing for the service of process on absent defendants, was personally served in another State, held valid and entitled to full faith and credit under the Federal Constitution. P. 463.

A court of another State cannot refuse to give full faith and credit to such judgment on the ground of an inconsistency between the judgment and the findings.

5. An incident of domicile is amenability to suit within the State even during sojourns without the State, where the State has provided a reasonable method for apprising the absent party of the proceedings against him. P. 464.

105 Colo. 532; 100 P.2d 151, reversed.

Certiorari, 310 U.S. 622, to review the affirmance of a judgment which denied full faith and credit to a foreign judgment.