## Facts

- A Missouri law firm entered bankruptcy, and the liquidating trustee obtained a Missouri deficiency judgment against former general partner Ronald U. Lurie for $1,121,743.
- The trustee domesticated the Missouri judgment in New Mexico and sought a writ of execution against a Frederic Remington sketch, *Scenes of Navajo Life*.
- Ronald and his wife, Nancy F. Lurie, bought the sketch in Missouri in 1978 while domiciled there.
- In 1993, while still Missouri domiciliaries, the Luries consigned the sketch to a Santa Fe, New Mexico gallery, where it remained; they later moved to Montana.
- Ronald and Nancy moved to quash the New Mexico writ, asserting the sketch was held as a Missouri tenancy by the entirety and the judgment was Ronald’s separate debt.
- The district court quashed the writ, concluding the sketch was entireties property under Missouri law and not reachable to satisfy Ronald’s separate obligation.

## Issues

1. Whether New Mexico or Missouri law governs characterization of the spouses’ ownership interest in the sketch for execution purposes.
2. Whether the deficiency judgment is a joint obligation of both spouses or Ronald Lurie’s separate debt, and whether entireties property may be executed upon to satisfy it.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals affirmed the order quashing the writ of execution.
- Missouri law governed the marital-property characterization because the sketch was acquired in Missouri while the spouses were domiciled there.
- Under Missouri law, the sketch was held as tenancy by the entirety.
- The deficiency judgment was Ronald Lurie’s separate debt, not a joint obligation of both spouses.
- Because Missouri entireties property is not subject to execution for the separate debt of one spouse, execution against the sketch was barred despite domestication of the judgment in New Mexico.

## Legal Principles

- Marital-property characterization is determined by the law of the spouses’ domicile at the time and place of acquisition; a later situs state’s law does not recharacterize vested marital property interests.
- Under Missouri law, property held as tenancy by the entirety is not reachable to satisfy the separate debt of only one spouse.
- Domestication of a foreign judgment provides a local enforcement mechanism but does not expand the creditor’s substantive rights against property beyond what the governing property law allows.
- Courts enforcing a domesticated judgment generally accept the rendering jurisdiction’s treatment of whether the obligation is separate or joint when assessing the judgment’s reach against marital property.

## Conclusion

The court held that Missouri law controlled the ownership characterization of the sketch, that the sketch was entireties property, and that the trustee could not execute on it in New Mexico to satisfy Ronald Lurie’s separate deficiency judgment.


Blackwell v. Lurie, 134 N.M. 1, 71 P.3d 509 (Ct. App. 2003)