Kai Hansjurgens v. Donald H. Bailey

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[PUBLISH]

In the

United States Court of Appeals

For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________

No. 22-10819

____________________

In re: DONALD H. BAILEY

Debtor.

________________________________________

KAI HANSJURGENS,

Plaintiff-Appellant,

versus

DONALD H. BAILEY,

Defendant-Appellee.

____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Southern District of Georgia

D.C. Docket No. 4:21-cv-00105-RSB-CLR,

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2 Opinion of the Court 22-10819

Bkcy No. 4:07-bk-41381-EJC

____________________

Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, and ROSENBAUM and ABUDU,

Circuit Judges.

ROSENBAUM, Circuit Judge:

Baseball Hall of Famer Frank Robinson famously said that

“[c]lose only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.” 1 To that

list we add one more thing: close—as long as it’s close enough to

qualify as “substantial compliance”—also counts when it comes to

following a state’s rules for reviving a judgment in federal court un-

der Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 69(a).

More than a decade ago, Appellee Donald Bailey obtained a

bankruptcy judgment against Appellant Kai Hansjurgens for tor-

tious interference with contract. That judgment included punitive

damages based on Hansjurgens’s “malice and intent to injure” and

“cavalier attitude toward [his] duties as [a] litigant[].” Bailey v. Hako-

Med USA, Inc., No. 09-4002, at 8–9 (Bankr. S.D. Ga. Apr. 7, 2011).

Hansjurgens has not paid Bailey a cent.

Georgia state law gave Bailey ten years to collect. But before

Bailey’s judgment expired irretrievably, Bailey filed—and the bank-

ruptcy court granted—a motion to revive that judgment. Hansjur-

gens does not dispute that the underlying judgment is valid, but he

1 Nick Acocella, More Info on Frank Robinson, ESPN CLASSIC (last visited Jan. 12,

2024), https://www.espn.com/classic/000728frankrobinsonadd.html

[https://perma.cc/5ATF-87HL].

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22-10819 Opinion of the Court 3

still seeks to keep his streak of dodging payment intact. This time,

Hansjurgens claims that Bailey didn’t strictly comply with Georgia

state-law procedures to revive his judgment. But the district court

found—and Bailey argues on appeal—that Bailey did enough to sat-

isfy the Georgia judgment-revival procedure under Federal Rule of

Civil Procedure 69(a). We agree. So after careful consideration,

and with the benefit of oral argument, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Original Bankruptcy Proceedings and Related Appeals

Bailey and Hansjurgens’s dispute originated with a business

arrangement. Bailey leased medical equipment to physicians. To

obtain some of his leasing inventory, Bailey entered into a distrib-

utorship agreement with Hansjurgens and his medical device com-

pany Hako-Med USA, Inc. Bailey v. Hako-Med USA, Inc. (In re Bai-

ley), 2010 Bankr. LEXIS 6300, at *2 (Bankr. S.D. Ga. 2010). Under

this agreement, Bailey bought several Hako-Med PRO Elec DT

2000 and VasoPulse 2000 devices. Healthcare professionals use

these machines to non-invasively treat lower back pain. Id. Unfor-

tunately for Bailey, though, he had trouble selling the devices. In

Bailey’s view, his sales problem arose because Hansjurgens and

Hako-Med recommended billing codes that resulted in lower reim-

bursement rates than they had touted. Id. at *3–4.

After the distributorship agreement expired, a medical-

equipment rental company, New River, offered to pay Bailey $1,000

each month per device to lease the devices to physicians’ offices.

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Id. at *5. But Hansjurgens and Hako-Med threatened (unfounded)

legal action against physicians who were negotiating with Bailey

and New River. Id. at *6. So Bailey stopped marketing the devices,

and New River shut down its operations. Id. at *9.

Bailey filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In bankruptcy court,

Bailey brought an adversary proceeding against Hansjurgens and

Hako-Med for tortious interference with contract.

The bankruptcy court held a trial and entered an interlocu-

tory order in favor of Bailey. Id. at *27. It concluded that Hansjur-

gens had indeed tortiously interfered “to bully the Potential Pur-

chasers out of negotiations” and “to advance his own pecuniary in-

terest.” Id. at *18–19.

After finding that Hansjurgens and Hako-Med “acted with

malice and intent to injure,” the bankruptcy court ordered post-

judgment discovery on punitive damages and attorney’s fees. Id.

at *21, *27. Bailey’s post-judgment discovery requests went

“largely unanswered,” so Bailey moved to compel. Bailey, No. 09-

4002, at 2. The bankruptcy court ordered Hansjurgens and Hako-

Med to submit discovery responses for the court’s inspection, but

they did not do so. Id. at 2–3.

In the meantime, the bankruptcy court proceeded with its

trial on punitive damages and attorney’s fees. In April 2011, the

bankruptcy court entered judgment for Bailey and awarded

$893,973.64 total: $277,336.13 in compensatory damages,

$554,672.26 in punitive damages, and $61,965.25 in attorney’s fees.

Id. at 12. In support of its ruling, the court characterized

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Hansjurgens’s trial testimony as “evasive and uncooperative” and

noted his “cavalier attitude toward [his] duties as [a] litigant[]”

throughout the discovery process. Id. at 3, 9. And it found that

Hansjurgens’s failure to produce post-judgment discovery was “in-

tentional” and “possibly motivated by a desire to perpetrate a fraud

on the Court.” Id. at 10.

Hansjurgens repeatedly and unsuccessfully appealed.

First, before the bankruptcy court entered final judgment,

Hansjurgens sought to appeal the partial-liability determination to

the district court. But the district court dismissed the appeal for

lack of jurisdiction because Hansjurgens never obtained leave to

appeal the interlocutory order. Hansjurgens v. Bailey (In re Bailey),

489 F. App’x 425, 425 (11th Cir. 2012). We affirmed. Id.

Hansjurgens then moved to reopen his appeal. The district

court denied the motion. Because the bankruptcy court later is-

sued a final judgment, we dismissed as moot Hansjurgens’s appeal

of that denial. Hansjurgens v. Bailey, No. 12-12465, at 4 (11th Cir.

2013).

In his third effort on appeal, Hansjurgens appealed the final

judgment to the district court. But the district court found that

Hansjurgens’s notice of appeal was untimely filed, and he failed to

show excusable neglect as Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure

8002(c)(2) requires. Hansjurgens v. Bailey, No. CV411-202, 2012 WL

3289001, at *3 (S.D. Ga. Aug. 10, 2012). We affirmed the dismissal

for lack of jurisdiction. In re Bailey, 521 F. App’x 920, 922 (11th Cir.

2013).

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Around the same time, Bailey moved the bankruptcy court

to hold Hansjurgens in contempt based on his and Hako-Med’s

continued failure to produce post-judgment discovery. Hansjur-

gens did not appear at the contempt hearing. So the bankruptcy

court submitted a proposed contempt order to the district court.

Bailey v. Hako-Med USA, Inc. (In re Bailey), 2011 Bankr. LEXIS 5424

(Bankr. S.D. Ga. 2011). The proposed order directed that Hansjur-

gens “be placed under arrest and imprisoned for his continuing

noncompliance” and that Hansjurgens reimburse Bailey’s reasona-

ble expenses incurred. Id. at *19.

The district court eventually adopted the bankruptcy court’s

proposed order in its entirety, specifying that an arrest warrant

would issue after 30 days if Hansjurgens did not comply with the

discovery order. Bailey v. Hako-Med USA, Inc., 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS

119697, at *3 (S.D. Ga. 2014). The court also ordered Hansjurgens

to pay Bailey’s reasonable expenses arising from the contemptible

conduct, including attorney’s fees, but it left calculation of those

expenses to the bankruptcy court. Id. at *3–4. Once again,

Hansjurgens did not comply. But the district court never issued an

arrest warrant.

Hansjurgens again appealed to this Court, and we dismissed

the appeal for lack of jurisdiction. In re Bailey, No. 14-14905 (11th

Cir. 2015), cert. denied, 580 U.S. 820 (2016). In our opinion, we noted

that both we and the U.S. Marshals “tried and failed to contact”

Hansjurgens about his own appeal. Id. at 5.

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B. Revival Proceedings

Under Georgia state law, the judgment against Hansjurgens

became dormant on April 7, 2018, and was due to become unen-

forceable on April 7, 2021. See GA. CODE ANN. § 9-12-61 (2020). 2

Before that could happen, though, in November 2020, Bailey re-

quested a status conference with the bankruptcy court. The bank-

ruptcy court set the conference for March 18, 2021. To inform

Hansjurgens of the status conference, the Bankruptcy Noticing

Center sent notice of the telephonic status conference to Hansjur-

gens’s Hawaii address and to Hako-Med’s registered agent

On March 12, 2021, Bailey filed an “Emergency Motion to

Revive Dormant Judgment” in the same adversarial proceeding as

the original judgment. In his motion, Bailey alleged that the judg-

ment “remains unsatisfied,” as Hansjurgens and Hako-Med “have

refused to pay any of the award.”

The bankruptcy court conducted its status conference, set a

telephonic hearing on the motion for March 30, and determined

that process would be served by mail. Bailey and the Bankruptcy

Noticing Center mailed notice of the hearing to Hansjurgens,

Hako-Med, and Hako-Med’s registered agent at their Nevada and

Hawaii addresses. At the court’s direction, Bailey filed an amended

certificate of service attesting that he had mailed the motion and

2 Throughout this opinion, we cite the 2020 statute, the version in effect when

the judgment against Hansjurgens became dormant and Bailey filed the mo-

tion to revive.

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8 Opinion of the Court 22-10819

notice of hearing to Hansjurgens, Hako-Med, registered agents

(EastBiz.com, Inc. and Alive, Inc.), and Hansjurgens’s attorney,

Craig Marc Rappel, at additional addresses in Nevada, Hawaii, and

Florida. Bailey’s counsel also called Rappel the day before the hear-

ing. But Hansjurgens failed to appear at the hearing or otherwise

contact the court.

On April 1, 2021, the bankruptcy court granted Bailey’s mo-

tion. It found that the judgment remained unpaid and that Bailey

timely moved to revive within the limitations period. As a result,

the bankruptcy court concluded, Bailey had satisfied Georgia’s pro-

cedural requirements and was entitled to revival of the judgment

against Hansjurgens.

Hansjurgens, proceeding pro se, appealed to the district

court. He raised four objections: (1) the bankruptcy court lacked

personal jurisdiction over him; (2) Bailey failed to comply with

Georgia procedures for revival of judgments; 3 (3) Bailey did not

state good cause to warrant issuance of an “emergency” order; and

(4) Bailey failed to properly notify him of the proceedings and serve

him with a summons, violating his due-process rights.

3 Hansjurgens contends that Bailey did not strictly comply with Georgia’s scire

facias procedures. We discuss Georgia’s scire facias procedures in more detail

later in this opinion, but for now, we note simply that scire facias “resembles

a summons and directs the” judgment debtor “to appear in the issuing court

on a certain date and to show cause why the identified judgment should not

be revived and an execution be issued.” Popham v. Jordan, 628 S.E.2d 660, 662

(Ga. Ct. App. 2006); see also GA. CODE ANN. § 9-12-63.

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The district court affirmed the bankruptcy court’s order.

Hansjurgens now appeals to this Court.

II. JURISDICTION

The district court exercised bankruptcy appellate jurisdic-

tion under 28 U.S.C. § 158(a). We have appellate jurisdiction under

28 U.S.C. §§ 158(d)(1) and 1291 because the revival judgment is a

final order.

To be final, an order “must end the litigation on the merits,

leaving nothing to be done but execute the judgment.” Barben v.

Donovan (In re Donovan), 532 F.3d 1134, 1136 (11th Cir. 2008). We

take a functional approach to the finality inquiry, “looking not to

the form of the” order “but to its actual effect.” Thomas v. Blue Cross

& Blue Shield Ass’n, 594 F.3d 823, 829 (11th Cir. 2010) (citation and

quotation marks omitted). And we treat finality more flexibly in

the bankruptcy context. Donovan, 532 F.3d at 1136. To that end, a

final order generally must resolve the adversary proceeding or con-

troversy in question but need not resolve the bankruptcy proceed-

ings in their entirety. Id.

For postjudgment proceedings, we determine finality

through a two-step inquiry. First, we “‘treat the postjudgment pro-

ceeding as a free-standing litigation, in effect treating the final judg-

ment as the first rather than the last order in the case.’” Mayer v.

Wall St. Equity Grp., Inc., 672 F.3d 1222, 1224 (11th Cir. 2012) (quot-

ing Thomas, 594 F.3d at 829). Second, we ask whether the order

“disposes of all the issues raised in the motion that initially sparked

the postjudgment proceedings” and whether the order is

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“apparently the last order to be entered in the action.” Id. (citations

and quotation marks omitted).

Under this framework, the revival judgment is a final order

over which we have appellate jurisdiction. Bailey’s emergency mo-

tion to revive the judgment “initially sparked the postjudgment

proceedings,” and the bankruptcy court’s order granting that mo-

tion “dispose[d] of all the issues raised” therein. See id. At the same

time, the district court’s order “dispose[d] of all the issues” in the

revival proceedings and was “the last order to be entered in the ac-

tion.” See id. And there is no further merits determination to be

made, since scire facias proceedings do not permit review on the

merits. See Heslen v. Heslen, 404 S.E.2d 592, 592 (Ga. Ct. App. 1991)

(“A grant of a writ of scire facias does not authorize the examina-

tion of the original judgment’s validity.” (citation omitted)). In

short, the revival judgment qualifies as a final order over which we

have appellate jurisdiction.

III. STANDARD OF REVIEW

In bankruptcy cases, we sit as a “‘second court of review.’”

Ga. Dep’t of Revenue v. Mouzon Enters., Inc. (In re Mouzon Enters., Inc.),

610 F.3d 1329, 1332 (11th Cir. 2010) (quoting Finova Cap. Corp. v. Lar-

son Pharm. Inc. (In re Optical Techs., Inc.), 425 F.3d 1294, 1299 (11th

Cir. 2005)). In this capacity, we “‘examine[] independently the fac-

tual and legal determinations of the bankruptcy court and em-

ploy[] the same standards of review as the district court.’” Id. We

review the bankruptcy court’s legal conclusions de novo and

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factual findings for clear error. Carrier Corp. v. Buckley (In re Globe

Mfg. Corp.), 567 F.3d 1291, 1296 (11th Cir. 2009).

IV. DISCUSSION

A. The district court retained personal jurisdiction over Hansjurgens

for the revival proceedings.

First, Hansjurgens claims that the bankruptcy court lacked

personal jurisdiction over him for the revival proceedings. 4 The

threshold question we must address in considering this issue is

whether the bankruptcy court needed to re-establish personal ju-

risdiction. We conclude that it did not.

Bailey did not file a new action against Hansjurgens. Rather,

he filed, with the same bankruptcy court and under the same case

caption as the adversary proceeding, an emergency motion for re-

vival that the bankruptcy court and district court construed as a

motion seeking revival in the form of scire facias. “Scire facias to

revive a judgment is not an original action but is the continuation

of the action in which the judgment was obtained.” GA. CODE

ANN. § 9-12-62; see also Mitchell v. Chastain Fin. Co., 233 S.E.2d 829,

832 (Ga. Ct. App. 1977) (scire facias to revive a judgment “is merely

a supplementary step in the original action”). So if the bankruptcy

court had personal jurisdiction over Hansjurgens for the adversary

proceeding—and neither party contests that it did—the

4 Bailey moved to dismiss based on the fugitive-disentitlement doctrine. We

carried that motion with the case. But because the merits require affirmance

in any case, we DENY AS MOOT Bailey’s motion to dismiss.

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bankruptcy court did not need to re-establish that jurisdiction for

the continuation of that proceeding. In other words, the bank-

ruptcy court retained personal jurisdiction over Hansjurgens from

the original bankruptcy adversary proceeding for the purposes of

the revival judgment.

B. The district court properly revived the judgment against

Hansjurgens.

Hansjurgens raises two objections to how Bailey revived the

judgment against him: (1) the procedure failed to strictly comply

with Georgia law governing scire facias proceedings; and (2) it vio-

lated due process. We find neither availing.

1. Rule 69 does not require strict compliance with

Georgia scire facias procedures.

We begin by identifying the relevant rules of procedure in a

judgment-revival proceeding in federal bankruptcy court. Rule

81(a)(2), Fed. R. Civ. P., makes the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

applicable to bankruptcy proceedings “to the extent provided by

the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure.” And Federal Rule of

Bankruptcy Procedure 7069, in turn, provides that Federal Rule of

Civil Procedure 69 “applies in adversary proceedings.” Fed. R.

Bankr. P. 7069.

So we turn to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 69. Rule 69

provides that the execution of judgments in adversary proceedings

“and in proceedings supplementary to and in aid of judgment or

execution . . . must accord with the procedure of the state where

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the court is located, but a federal statute governs to the extent it

applies.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 69(a)(1) (incorporated into bankruptcy ad-

versary proceedings by Fed. R. Bankr. P. 7069). 5 That requires us to

reconsider the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure. But no

Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure “governs” revival of judg-

ments. So under Rule 69, the creation, dormancy, and execution

of the judgment against Hansjurgens must “accord with” Georgia

state procedures.

We begin, as always, with the Rule’s text. See United States v.

Ron Pair Enters., Inc., 489 U.S. 235, 241 (1989). Rule 69’s key phrase

is “accord with.”

In its original form, Rule 69 provided,

5 The bankruptcy and district courts concluded that Federal Rule of Civil Pro-

cedure 81(b) abolishes scire facias in federal court, and under that rule, Bailey

could obtain relief previously available through scire facias by “appropriate

action or motion.” So the courts determined that Bailey needed to substan-

tially comply with Georgia’s scire facias procedures, and filing the motion to

revive sufficed. On appeal, for the first time, Hansjurgens objects to the appli-

cation of Rule 81(b), relying on our decision in Rosenberg v. DVI Receivables XIV,

LLC, 818 F.3d 1283 (11th Cir. 2016). Rosenberg held that the Federal Rules of

Civil Procedure “only apply” in bankruptcy cases “to the extent they have

been explicitly incorporated by the Federal Bankruptcy Rules,” id. at 1288, and

Hansjurgens asserts that Rule 81 has not been explicitly incorporated. We

need not decide this issue regardless of whether Hansjurgens preserved it.

Hansjurgens argues that the bankruptcy court should have issued an adversar-

ial summons after Bailey initiated the revival proceeding by motion. Although

bankruptcy courts may issue adversarial summonses, see Fed. R. Bankr.

P. 7004, we reject the argument that the failure of the bankruptcy court to

issue one here violated Rule 69(a).

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The procedure on execution, in proceedings supple-

mentary to and in aid of a judgment, and in proceed-

ings on and in aid of execution shall be in accordance

with the practice and procedure of the state in which

the district court is held, existing at the time the rem-

edy is sought, except that any statute of the United

States governs to the extent that it is applicable.

Fed. R. Civ. P. 69(a) (1938) (emphasis added). In 2007, Rule 69(a)

was amended as part of a broader effort to simplify the language

of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure without changing their sub-

stance. Fed. R. Civ. P. 69 advisory committee’s note to 2007 Amend-

ment; see also Mills v. Foremost Ins., 511 F.3d 1300, 1308 n.11 (11th

Cir. 2008). The phrase “accord with” replaced the phrase “in ac-

cordance with.” Because these phrases are substantially the same,

we look to dictionary definitions from the time of initial adoption

of the “accordance” language, 1938. See Bostock v. Clayton County,

140 S. Ct. 1731, 1738–39 (2020); Antonin Scalia & Bryan A. Garner,

Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts § 40, at 257 (2012) (ex-

plaining that “new language” in a “legislative restyling exercise[]”

like the revised Rule 69(a) “does not amend prior enactments un-

less it does so clearly”).

At that time, “accord” meant “to agree or concur,” Accord,

Black’s Law Dictionary (3d ed. 1933), or “to agree, be in harmony,

be consistent,” Accord, Oxford English Dictionary (2d ed. 1933). See

also Accord, Webster’s New International Dictionary (2d ed. 1938)

(“To bring into agreement; to reconcile; to . . . harmonize”). Those

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definitions do not require revival proceedings in federal court to

strictly follow state-law procedures, however impractical or arcane.

Rather, they suggest that revival proceedings in federal court must

only “agree” or “be in harmony”—in other words, substantially

comply—with state-law procedures. And “when the meaning of

the [Rule’s] terms is plain, our job is at an end.” Bostock, 140 S. Ct.

at 1749. 6

Still, though, as we explain after we describe Georgia’s scire

facias procedures, practicalities reinforce the natural meaning of

“accord.” Under Georgia law, a “judgment shall become dormant

and shall not be enforced . . . [w]hen seven years shall elapse after

the rendition of the judgment before execution is issued

thereon[.]” GA. CODE ANN. § 9-12-60. The judgment creditor may

“renew[] or revive[]” the dormant judgment “by an action or by

scire facias, at the option of the holder of the judgment, within

three years from the time it becomes dormant.” Id. § 9-12-61.

These two statutory provisions “operate in tandem as a ten-year

statute of limitation for the enforcement of Georgia judgments.”

Corzo Trucking Corp. v. West, 636 S.E.2d 39, 40 (Ga. Ct. App. 2006).

The 2011 judgment against Hansjurgens became dormant on April

7, 2018, and would have expired on April 7, 2021.

6 Even if we look to dictionary definitions from 2007, when the current version

of the Rule was adopted, our interpretation does not change. See, e.g., Accord,

Black’s Law Dictionary (8th ed. 2004) (“To agree”); Accord, Merriam-Web-

ster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed. 2007) (“to be consistent or in harmony:

AGREE”); Accord, American Heritage Dictionary (4th ed. 2006) (“To be in

agreement, unity, or harmony”).

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Scire facias “resembles a summons and directs the” judg-

ment debtor “to appear in the issuing court on a certain date and

to show cause why the identified judgment should not be revived

and an execution be issued.” Popham, 628 S.E.2d at 662. “Scire fa-

cias to revive a judgment is not an original action but is the contin-

uation of the action in which the judgment was obtained.” GA.

CODE ANN. § 9-12-62. To that end, “[i]n no case and under no cir-

cumstances can the merits of the original judgment be inquired

into” in scire facias proceedings. Mitchell, 233 S.E.2d at 833.

If the judgment debtor resides outside the state, the “judg-

ment may be revived . . . by such process as is issued in cases in

which the defendant resides in this state, provided that” he “shall

be served with scire facias by publication in the newspaper in which

the official advertisements of the county are published[.]” GA.

CODE ANN. § 9-12-67. Neither “record[ing] the judgment on the

general execution docket” nor “mak[ing] any efforts to collect the

judgment” is a “prerequisite to reviving a dormant judgment.”

Bowers v. Jim Rainwater Builder & Props., Inc., 416 S.E.2d 832, 832

(Ga. Ct. App. 1992).

Hansjurgens asserts that Bailey and the bankruptcy court

did not strictly comply with these state-law procedures. He is right

about that. It is undisputed that Bailey did not file a new judgment

to seek revival. It is also undisputed that Bailey did not strictly fol-

low traditional scire facias procedures. These traditional proce-

dures include issuance from “the court of the county in which the

judgment was obtained” and service “by the sheriff of the county

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in which [the judgment debtor] resides” twenty days prior to the

hearing, or service by publication for two months before the hear-

ing. GA. CODE ANN. §§ 9-12-63, 9-12-67.

But, again, we do not interpret Rule 69(a) to require strict

compliance—only that federal revival proceedings “accord,” or

substantially comply, with state procedures. See Chambers v. Blickle

Ford Sales, Inc., 313 F.2d 252, 256 (2d Cir. 1963) (holding that an en-

forcement hearing in lieu of a state scire facias action “accords with

the spirit of the Rules and seems to be a sufficiently close adherence

to state procedures”); Thomas, Head & Greisen Emps. Tr. v. Buster, 95

F.3d 1449, 1452 (9th Cir. 1996); 12 Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R.

Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure Civil § 3012 (3d ed. 2023); 13

Moore’s Federal Practice Civil § 69.03[3]. As the Seventh Circuit has

opined, “[w]e do not think the draftsmen of Rule 69 meant to put

the judge into a procedural straitjacket, whether of state or federal

origin.” Resol. Tr. Corp. v. Ruiero, 994 F.2d 1221, 1226 (7th Cir.

1993) (citation omitted). And as we’ve explained, the Rule’s plain

text does not compel a “procedural straitjacket” in the form of a

strict-compliance requirement. We will not impose one here.

What’s more, Georgia scire facias procedures do not

squarely fit within the federal court system. Under Georgia state

law, the clerk of the state court in which the judgment was ob-

tained must issue scire facias, and that county’s sheriff must serve

it. GA. CODE ANN. § 9-12-63. But Georgia federal courts do not

control county sheriffs. Requiring strict compliance with scire fa-

cias procedures in a federal forum that cannot order the state-

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18 Opinion of the Court 22-10819

mandated relief makes little sense. And insisting on county-specific

procedures in federal court, especially in a state with 159 counties,

is impractical. Rather, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which

apply uniformly in federal court, require one procedure for obtain-

ing relief: filing a motion. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 7(b)(1) (incorporated

into bankruptcy adversary proceedings by Fed. R. Bankr. P. 7007).

That is exactly what Bailey did here.

We conclude that Bailey substantially complied with Geor-

gia’s scire facias statute, so revival was proper. Scire facias provides

notice of court proceedings and the opportunity “to show cause

why the identified judgment should not be revived and an execu-

tion be issued.” Popham, 628 S.E.2d at 662. Service here accom-

plished the same goal. Hansjurgens received at least twelve notices

of the revival hearing, and his participation in these proceedings

has provided him an opportunity to object to the revival judgment.

In other words, the purposes of scire facias have been served. Cf.

Sanderford v. Prudential Ins. Co. of Am., 902 F.2d 897, 900 (11th Cir.

1990) (upholding a default judgment when the summons omitted

a return date but substantially complied with Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(b)

and the defendant was not prejudiced by the defect); Chambers, 313

F.2d at 256.

Indeed, as a purely practical matter, there is nothing more

that can be accomplished by remanding for strict compliance. Re-

manding would not change the ultimate result of the revival pro-

ceedings. To be sure, the district court could require personal ser-

vice on Hansjurgens. But a revival motion may be timely even if

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22-10819 Opinion of the Court 19

service is not perfected during the dormancy period, so long as the

motion is filed before the judgment expires. Stahle v. Jones, 3 S.E.2d

861, 862 (Ga. Ct. App. 1939). And here, Bailey timely filed his re-

vival motion. So even if the district court ordered Bailey to person-

ally serve it on Hansjurgens, the revival proceedings would still go

forward.

Personal service could not accomplish more than what this

record demonstrates has already occurred: Hansjurgens’s actual

notice of the proceedings. Plus, under Georgia law, parties may

not challenge “the merits of the original judgment” in scire facias

proceedings to revive it. Bowers, 416 S.E.2d at 832–33. So since Bai-

ley’s revival motion was timely, and since we dispose of Hansjur-

gens’s procedural objections in this appeal, Hansjurgens has no

other basis for a challenge to the revival proceedings.

Put simply, the only outcome on remand would be to reach

the same result: the entry of a valid revival judgment, though after

even more time and expense. Because service here was in “accord”

with Georgia’s scire facias procedures, and because remanding for

personal service would not change the outcome of the revival pro-

ceedings, we hold that the bankruptcy court properly revived the

dormant judgment.

2. The revival proceedings did not violate due process.

Finally, Hansjurgens argues that the bankruptcy court vio-

lated his due-process rights when it did not require personal service

through an adversarial summons, contrary to Georgia state law.

Hansjurgens does not claim that Bailey mailed the revival motion

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20 Opinion of the Court 22-10819

and notice of hearing to the wrong addresses—addresses that

Hansjurgens had provided to the court. Instead, Hansjurgens com-

plains that, despite delivery to the addresses he provided and a call

to his former (and later) attorney advising him of the proceeding,

Hansjurgens was unaware of the proceeding until after the judg-

ment was revived.

Our precedent does not require service in one particular

form to satisfy due process—rather, “[d]ue process is a flexible con-

cept that varies with the particular circumstances of each case, and

myriad forms of notice may satisfy” its requirements. Arrington v.

Helms, 438 F.3d 1336, 1350 (11th Cir. 2006). Under this “flexible”

framework, “notice must be ‘reasonably calculated, under all the

circumstances, to apprise interested parties of the pendency of the

action and afford them an opportunity to present their objections.’”

Id. at 1349–50 (quoting Mullane v. Cent. Hanover Bank & Tr. Co., 339

U.S. 306, 314 (1950)).

Both the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure and Fed-

eral Rules of Civil Procedure authorize service by mail. First, Fed-

eral Rule of Civil Procedure 5 applies in bankruptcy adversary pro-

ceedings. Fed. R. Bankr. P. 7005. Under that rule, “mailing” the

motion and notice of hearing “to the person’s last known address—

in which event service is complete upon mailing”—accomplishes

service. Fed. R. Civ. P. 5(b)(2)(C). Separately, the Federal Rules of

Bankruptcy Procedure authorize service by mail “to the individ-

ual’s dwelling house or usual place of abode or to the place where

the individual regularly conducts a business or profession” or to “an

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22-10819 Opinion of the Court 21

agent of such defendant authorized by appointment or by law to

receive service of process.” Fed. R. Bankr. P. 7004(b)(1), (8).

Bailey certified that he mailed the motion to revive and no-

tice of hearing to Hansjurgens at three Hawaii and Nevada ad-

dresses, including the address that Hansjurgens has since used in

his appellate filings. Bailey also mailed the motion and hearing no-

tice to two registered agents of Hako-Med (EastBiz.com, Inc. and

Alive, Inc.) and Hansjurgens’s attorney, Craig Marc Rappel. 7 The

Bankruptcy Noticing Center certified that it too mailed notice to

of the hearing to three Nevada addresses. Not only that, but Bai-

ley’s counsel called Rappel in yet another attempt to inform

Hansjurgens of the revival proceedings. And as Hansjurgens’s par-

ticipation in the appellate process reflects, Hansjurgens had actual

notice of the revival proceedings and an opportunity to be heard.

To be sure, Bailey could have attempted service personally

or by publication, but due process did not require him to do so. See

Arrington, 438 F.3d at 1350 (due process does not require notice that

is “ideal under all the circumstances, but rather” notice that “is rea-

sonable under all the circumstances”). We conclude that service by

mail to the six addresses here was “reasonably calculated . . . to ap-

prise” Hansjurgens of the revival proceedings and to allow him to

present objections. See Mullane, 339 U.S. at 314.

7 At the time, Hansjurgens was proceeding pro se, but Rappel had represented

him in prior proceedings. Rappel resumed representing Hansjurgens for his

appeal in this Court until Rappel passed away in January 2023 and current

counsel took over.

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22 Opinion of the Court 22-10819

V. CONCLUSION

For the reasons we have explained, we affirm the district

court’s revival order.

AFFIRMED.