A creditor wins a $1.2 million judgment in Florida and discovers six months later that the debtor has moved to New York and now holds a brokerage account at a Manhattan firm. The Florida judgment is fully litigated and final. The creditor’s local counsel is unfamiliar with New York post-judgment practice and starts asking whether the case has to be retried. It does not. Sister-state judgments that meet the requirements of CPLR Article 54 can be filed with a New York county clerk and treated as a New York Supreme Court judgment from that day forward. The team at Warner & Scheuerman handles these domestications regularly for out-of-state creditors and their counsel, and the procedure is straightforward when the underlying judgment qualifies and trickier than it looks when it doesn’t.
The framework matters because the difference between the streamlined Article 54 path and the alternatives can be six months and several thousand dollars in fees.
Article 54 in One Sentence
CPLR Article 54 is New York’s codification of the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act. The statute implements the Full Faith and Credit Clause of Article IV, Section 1 of the United States Constitution and the federal full faith and credit statute at 28 U.S.C. § 1738. The basic principle: a money judgment from a sister-state court that conducted a plenary proceeding need not be relitigated in New York to be enforced here.
The word “foreign” in the statute is a trap for new readers. Article 54 governs out-of-state judgments, meaning judgments from other U.S. states and federal courts. Judgments from courts of other countries are governed by Article 53 (the Uniform Foreign Country Money-Judgments Recognition Act), not Article 54.
CPLR 5401 defines “foreign judgment” for Article 54 purposes as any judgment, decree, or order of a court of the United States or of any other court entitled to full faith and credit in New York, with one significant exception that drives most of the procedural variation in this practice area. Default judgments and confession judgments are excluded from the streamlined procedure.
The Streamlined Filing Procedure Under CPLR 5402
For a sister-state judgment that was actually litigated (defendant appeared, defended, and lost), the procedure is administrative.
CPLR 5402(a) requires the judgment creditor to file an authenticated copy of the sister-state judgment with any county clerk in New York within ninety days of the date of authentication. The authentication is the exemplified copy, sometimes referred to as a “triple certified” judgment, prepared in accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 1738. The clerk of the rendering court certifies the judgment, a judge of that court certifies the clerk, and the clerk certifies the judge.
Filed with the judgment must be an affidavit by the judgment creditor stating four things:
- The judgment was not obtained by default in appearance or by confession
- It is unsatisfied in whole or in part, with the amount remaining unpaid specified
- Its enforcement has not been stayed
- The name and last known address of the judgment debtor
CPLR 5402(b) provides that the clerk shall treat the foreign judgment “in the same manner as a judgment of the supreme court of this state.” Once filed, the judgment has the same effect and is subject to the same procedures, defenses, and proceedings for reopening, vacating, or staying as a New York Supreme Court judgment, and may be enforced or satisfied in the same manner.
CPLR 5403 requires the judgment creditor, within thirty days of filing, to mail a notice of filing to the judgment debtor with a copy of the judgment, and to file proof of mailing with the court. The thirty-day notice is not optional. Failure to comply leaves the domestication procedurally vulnerable.
CPLR 5404 provides the stay mechanism. A debtor who has furnished security in the rendering state, or who is appealing the underlying judgment there, can apply for a stay of New York enforcement on proof of that security. New York courts retain discretion to grant a stay under New York law as well.
The interest rate that applies once the judgment is domesticated is New York’s 9 percent statutory post-judgment rate, which is often higher than the rate in the rendering state. The twenty-year enforcement clock under CPLR 211(b) begins running on the New York filing.
The Default Judgment Problem and the CPLR 3213 Workaround
Many sister-state judgments are default judgments, particularly in commercial collection cases where the debtor was served, ignored the action, and never appeared. The Article 54 streamlined procedure is not available for these.
The alternative is a plenary action in New York, brought either as a traditional summons-and-complaint case or, more typically, as a motion for summary judgment in lieu of complaint under CPLR 3213. The CPLR 3213 vehicle was designed for actions based on a judgment or an instrument for the payment of money, and it allows the plaintiff to skip the complaint, the answer, and discovery, and proceed directly to summary judgment on the basis that there is no triable issue of fact about the existence and amount of the judgment.
The First Department’s decision in Cadle Co. v. Tri-Angle Assocs., 18 A.D.3d 100 (1st Dep’t 2005), confirmed that CPLR 3213 is an appropriate vehicle for domesticating a sister-state default judgment. More recently, in Cadlerock Joint Venture, L.P. v. Simms, the Second Department reversed a trial court’s denial of a CPLR 3213 motion to domesticate a 2017 North Carolina renewal of a 2007 default judgment, granting the motion on appeal. The court emphasized that recognition of a sister-state judgment under the Full Faith and Credit Clause does not require the New York court to have personal jurisdiction over the debtor. Recognition is distinct from execution. The absence of New York assets affects the feasibility of collection, not the threshold availability of recognition.
That distinction matters operationally. A creditor can domesticate the judgment in New York before knowing exactly where the debtor’s assets are, and use the new New York judgment as the basis for the full Article 52 enforcement toolkit (information subpoenas, restraining notices, turnover proceedings) once assets are located.
What Defenses the Debtor Can Raise
A judgment debtor opposing domestication in New York is on a tight leash. The merits of the underlying case are off limits under the Full Faith and Credit Clause. Fauntleroy v. Lum, 210 U.S. 230 (1908), settled the rule more than a century ago.
The defenses that remain available are jurisdictional and process-based:
- The rendering court lacked personal jurisdiction over the debtor
- The rendering court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the dispute
- The judgment was procured by fraud
- The judgment is void on its face under the rendering state’s law
- A specific public policy of New York would be offended by recognition (rare and narrow)
The debtor cannot relitigate liability, damages, or evidence already presented in the original case. A New York court reviewing an Article 54 filing or a CPLR 3213 motion is not sitting in appellate review of the rendering court.
How Warner & Scheuerman Handles Sister-State Domestications
The firm’s typical sister-state domestication starts with a review of the underlying judgment to confirm it qualifies for Article 54 treatment, including whether the debtor appeared, whether the judgment is final, and whether enforcement is currently stayed. If Article 54 applies, the firm obtains the exemplified copy from the rendering jurisdiction, prepares the CPLR 5402 affidavit, and files with the appropriate county clerk within the ninety-day window. The CPLR 5403 notice goes out to the debtor immediately, with proof of mailing filed promptly.
For default and confession judgments, the firm proceeds via CPLR 3213. The motion package includes the exemplified judgment, an affidavit confirming the procedural posture in the rendering state, evidence of unsatisfied amount, and a memorandum addressing any apparent jurisdictional or procedural questions before the debtor raises them.
Once the New York judgment is on the books, the firm’s standard Article 52 collection workflow takes over: information subpoenas to identify assets, restraining notices on financial institutions, and turnover proceedings against actual holders of debtor property.
If you hold a sister-state judgment and the debtor has assets in New York, or you represent an out-of-state creditor whose collection efforts have stalled because the debtor relocated, reach out to Warner & Scheuerman to evaluate the right domestication path and the post-judgment enforcement plan that should follow it.