806.40.Temporarily determining the U.S. dollar value of foreign-money claims for limited purposes.

Litigation involving a foreign-money claim often needs a U.S. dollar figure well before any judgment is entered, for example to seize assets or set a bond. Section 806.40 supplies that figure for those limited purposes. Subsection (1) lists what it covers: the value in U.S. dollars of assets to be seized or restrained under a writ of attachment, garnishment, execution, or other legal process, the U.S. dollar amount at issue for assessing costs, and the U.S. dollar amount involved for a surety bond or other court-required undertaking.

Subsection (2) sets the method: the party seeking the process, costs, bond, or other undertaking computes the U.S. dollar amount from a bank-offered spot rate of exchange prevailing at or near the close of business on the banking day before the filing of the relevant request or application. Subsection (3) backs that computation with an affidavit or certificate, executed in good faith by counsel or a bank officer, stating the market quotation used, how it was obtained, and the calculation itself. Once that filing is made, court officials incur no liability for acting as if the judgment were in the stated U.S. dollar amount.

Subsection (4) keeps this valuation in its lane: computations made under this section are for its limited purposes only and do not affect how the U.S. dollar equivalent of the judgment’s own money gets computed for payment purposes later.