Manches & Co. v. Gilbey
Massachusetts Supreme Court
419 Mass. 414, 646 N.E.2d 86 (1995)
Facts
Manches & Co. (Manches) (plaintiff) was a London firm of solicitors that brought an action against Suzanne Gilbey and Peter Thornton, claiming that Gilbey and Thornton were liable for legal services rendered to Gilbey in England after the death of her father. On August 22, 1992, the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice in London entered a default judgment in favor of Manches for £30,138.35. On November 2, 1992, Manches commenced an action in superior court in Massachusetts to enforce Massachusetts’s version of the Uniform Foreign Money Judgments Recognition Act. The Massachusetts court granted summary judgment in favor of Manches. The judge entered judgment in dollars using the exchange rate between the British pound and the American dollar at the time summary judgment was granted. Manches appealed and disputed the amount of the judgment that was entered. Manches argued that the judge should have used the exchange rate at the date that the judgment was entered in London because the British pound declined in relation to the American dollar from the date of the London judgment to the date of the Massachusetts judgment.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Wilkins, J.)
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