Renoir

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs and respondents Societe Civile Succession Richard Guiño, a French Trust (Societe Civile); Alain Renoir; and Jacques Renoir (plaintiffs) filed a “Petition for Entry of a California Court Judgment Under The Uniform Foreign Judgment Recognition Act,” by which plaintiffs sought to enforce in California an April 8, 1998 French judgment (French judgment) against defendants Redstar Corporation, Jean-Emmanuel Renoir and Louise Hernandez (defendants). The trial court entered judgment in favor of plaintiffs (the California judgment) under Code of Civil Procedure sections 1713—1713.8 (Foreign Money-Judgments Act). Thereafter, defendants moved under Code of Civil Procedure section 473, subdivision (d) to set aside the California judgment as void on the ground that the court had no personal jurisdiction over them because plaintiffs failed to produce evidence of actual receipt of process by defendants, no summons was issued or served, and defendants did not have minimum contacts with California. The trial court denied the motion. We reverse the trial court’s order denying the motion to set aside the California judgment because plaintiffs failed to serve a…