The question for decision is whether the Supreme Court of Ohio, by denying recovery upon a judgment procured by petitioner against respondent in the courts of New York, has failed to accord to the New York judgment the full faith and credit which Article 4, § 1 of the Constitution, U.S.C.A. commands.
Petitioner brought the present suit against respondent in the Ohio Court of Common Pleas upon a judgment recovered by petitioner against respondent in the Supreme Court of New York on May 1, 1934. Transcript of the New York judgment for $389,103, duly authenticated in conformity to the Act of Congress, R.S. § 905, 28 U.S.C. § 687, 28 U.S.C.A. § 687, was filed with the petition in the Ohio court. Defenses interposed by respondent, so far as now material, were that petitioner was not the real party in interest in the Ohio suit and that the judgment had been procured in New York by fraud on the court and on respondent, in that petitioner was not the real party in interest entitled to assert the claim litigated in that suit as required by § 210¢of the New York Civil Practice Act, and that petitioner, in procuring the judgment, suppressed and withheld that fact from respondent and the New York courts.
The Court of Common Pleas, after a trial without a jury, sustained these defenses and gave judgment for respondent, which the Ohio Court of Appeals for Franklin County affirmed, with an opinion in which it ruled that the judgment sustaining the defenses did not deny the New York judgment the full faith and credit required by the Constitution. Appeal to the Supreme Court of Ohio assigning as error the denial of full faith and credit to the New York judgment was dismissed on the ground that the case involved 'no debatable constitutional question'. 133 Ohio St. 612, 15 N.E.2d 140. We granted certiorari October 10, 1938, 305 U.S. 585, 59 S.Ct. 80, 83 L.Ed. --, the constitutional question presented by the petition being of public importance and the federal right asserted having been ruled upon and denied by the highest court of the state. Matthews v. Huwe, 269 U.S. 262, 46 S.Ct. 108, 70 L.Ed. 266; Tumey v. Ohio, 273 U.S. 510, 515, 47 S.Ct. 437, 438, 71 L.Ed. 749, 50 A.L.R. 1243.
Petitioner brought the New York suit in December, 1925, alleging that he was the owner of a quarter interest in two hundred and fifty shares of the stock of an Ohio corporation which respondent here, the defendant there, had fraudulently appropriated to his own use. The relief sought was that respondent be directed to deliver to petitioner certificates of stock representing his interest in the corporation and to account for the dividends and earnings on the stock received by respondent. Respondent appeared personally and defended the suit. It was twice tried in the Supreme Court of New York and was five times before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, 222 App.Div. 17, 225 N.Y.S. 263; 277 App.Div. 789, 237 N.Y.S. 908; 235 App.Div. 662, 255 N.Y.S. 905; 240 App.Div. 818, 266 N.Y.S. 969; 244 App.Div. 789, 280 N.Y.S. 969, and once before the New York Court of Appeals, 260¢n.Y. 519, 184 N.E. 75, which affirmed a judgment establishing the liability of respondent. An accounting, at the end of nine years of litigation, resulted in the final judgment sued upon, which was affirmed by the Appellate Division. 244 App.Div. 789, 280¢n.Y.S. 969.
The present record discloses that after entry of this judgment London Wallick, a brother of respondent, brought suit in the Supreme Court of New York to recover from petitioner a share of the judgment pursuant to a contract alleged to have been entered into by him with London Wallick on or about November 23, 1925. In resisting a motion made in that suit for an injunction restraining petitioner from disposing of the judgment or its proceeds, petitioner prepared and filed an affidavit reciting that on or before November 23, 1925, he had informed London Wallick that he had already assigned his interest in the claim against respondent to his wife and to Walter Titus, his brother, and asserting that 'it does not lie within the jurisdiction of this court to enjoin what has already been accomplished'.