Agrégateur de flux

Written by Professor Stephen G.A. Pitel, Western University

The decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in R.S. v P.R., 2019 SCC 49 (available here) could be of interest to those who work with codified provisions on staying proceedings. It involves interpreting the language of several such provisions in the Civil Code of Quebec. Art. 3135 is the general provision for a stay of proceedings, but on its wording and as interpreted by the courts it is “exceptional” and so the hurdle for a stay is high. In contrast, Art. 3137 is a specific provision for a stay of proceedings based on lis pendens (proceedings underway elsewhere) and if it applies it does not have the same exceptional nature. This decision concerns Art. 3137 and how it should be interpreted.

P.R. (the husband) filed for divorce in Belgium. R.S. (the wife) filed for divorce three days later in Quebec. The husband sought to stay the Quebec proceedings on the basis of lis pendens. [para. 2] The motions judge refused a stay but the Quebec Court of Appeal reversed and granted a stay. The Supreme Court of Canada (6-1) reversed and restored the original refusal of a stay. The upshot is that the wife is allowed to proceed with divorce proceedings in Quebec.

The dispute was protracted largely because the husband, under Belgian law, purported to revoke all gifts he had given to the wife during their marriage. [paras. 2 and 13] These were worth more than $33 million. This is legal under Belgian law though not free from controversy [para. 59].

Art. 3137 provides “On the application of a party, a Québec authority may stay its ruling on an action brought before it if another action, between the same parties, based on the same facts and having the same subject is pending before a foreign authority, provided that the latter action can result in a decision which may be recognized in Québec, or if such a decision has already been rendered by a foreign authority.”

One of the central issues for the court was whether a Belgian decision could be recognized in Quebec. Because a Belgian court would give effect to the revocation of the gifts in its decision, Justice Abella did not think so. She held that “foreign judgments which annihilate not only countless international instruments regarding the equality of spouses and the protection of a vulnerable one, but also the very philosophical underpinnings of the provisions in the [Civil Code of Quebec] contradict those conceptions and will not be recognized in Quebec.” [para 142] In her view no Belgian decision accepting the revocation of the gifts on these facts could be recognized in Quebec: refusal under Art. 3155(5) – “the outcome of a foreign decision is manifestly inconsistent with public order as understood in international relations” – was inevitable. On this view, Art. 3137 did not apply and so there was no basis for a stay.

In contrast, Justice Gascon, joined by four other judges, held that a Belgian decision could be recognized in Quebec. The threshold is low, requiring only the possibility or plausibility of recognition. [para. 48] The focus is not on the specific provisions of any rule that the foreign court might apply in reaching its decision but on the outcome or decision itself. [para. 56] He held that “the husband was required to show only that there was a possibility that the eventual Belgian decision would not be manifestly inconsistent with public order as understood in international relations.” [para. 57] He listed several possible outcomes by which the Belgian court might render a decision that could be recognized in Quebec, including the prospect that a Belgian court might not give effect to the revocation of the gifts on the basis that the law so allowing is unconstitutional. [paras. 58-63]

On Justice Gascon’s reasoning, Art. 3137 did apply, making a stay available. However, the provision is discretionary, expressly using the word “may”. [para. 67] Justice Gascon considered that the motions judge’s decision to not grant a stay based on this discretion was not unreasonable and so should not have been disturbed by the Court of Appeal. [para. 80]

Unlike the other six judges, Justice Brown thought that a stay should be granted. In his dissent, he expressed concern about the motions judge’s reasoning. He held that the motions judge had, in interpreting the conditions that trigger Art. 3137, made “overriding” errors that justified appellate intervention. [para. 162]  He also held that the motions judge had not truly exercised the discretion under Art. 3137. [para. 169] Accordingly he was prepared to exercise it afresh and held (agreeing with the Quebec Court of Appeal) that the Quebec proceedings should be stayed. The factors favoured proceedings in Belgium, especially the concern that any Quebec judgment would not be recognized in Belgium because the Belgian proceedings had started first. [para. 186]

It appears that one of the key reasons for the split between Justice Gascon and Justice Brown is that the former focused on the substantial assets in Quebec, which would of course be subject to a Quebec divorce decision [para. 91], whereas the latter focused on the substantial assets in Belgium that would be unaffected by a Quebec divorce decision [para. 187]. This goes to the exercise of the discretion to ignore the lis pendens and refuse a stay. One of the relevant factors for this is whether the court’s eventual judgment would be recognized by the forum first seized. It is easy to appreciate that this factor does not matter if that judgment does not need to be recognized there at all to be effective and, in contrast, that it is vital if it must be. [para. 90] The facts position this case somewhere in between the ends of this spectrum.

The split between Justice Gascon and Justice Abella in part is based on their understanding of Belgian law. Justice Abella repeatedly noted that there is no evidence – Belgian law being a matter of fact in a Canadian court – that a Belgian court would do anything other than give effect to the revocation. [paras. 117-21] In contrast, Justice Gascon held there was at least some evidence going the other way [para. 59] and in addition he was prepared to rely on the possibility that certain arguments might be successfully advanced. [paras. 61-62]

Many of the issues in this case arise specifically because of the separate treatment under Quebec law of lis pendens. The analysis at common law could have been quite different, all conducted under the rubric of the doctrine of forum non conveniens. Parallel proceedings would have been one of the factors considered in the analysis. But the common law has been prepared to reject according much if any weight to first-in-time proceedings based only on relatively short differences in timing (in this case, three days). Indeed, Justice Gascon noted the tension caused by strict application of first-in-time rules, either when staying proceedings or deciding whether to recognize a foreign judgment. [para. 89]

One small point might be worth a final comment. In developing the proper interpretation of Art. 3137 the judges stressed that if successfully invoked by the defendant it leads to a stay of proceedings, which is less final and so less prejudicial to the plaintiff than an outright dismissal of the proceeding. A proceeding so stayed could, if justice demanded, be reactivated. This is contrasted with the general provision in Art. 3135. [paras. 72-73 and 179] However, that provision, while not using the word “stay”, uses the phrase “decline jurisdiction”. The judges treated it is as a given that this means the proceedings are dismissed and at an end. But is it not at least arguable that to decline jurisdiction the court must first have jurisdiction, and that the declining amounts to a stay of that jurisdiction and not a dismissal? The court could have explained the basis for its position on this issue somewhat more fulsomely.

Non lieu à renvoi

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) have just published When Private International Law Meets Intellectual Property – A Guide for Judges. The guide, which has been co-authored by Annabelle Bennett (Former Judge at the Federal Court of Australia) and Sam Granata (Judge at the Court of Appeal of Antwerp, Belgium, and at the Benelux Court of Justice, Luxembourg), aims to provide practical guidance with regard to the intersection of intellectual property and private international law.

The guide has been published under a Creative-Commons License and can be downloaded from the HCCH and WIPO websites. It can also be purchased from WIPO as a print-on-demand publication.

This is a case with no immediate conflict of laws interests (jurisdiction for instance was not disputed), other than a helpful summary by Matthews J on the overall conduct of proceedings in civil law cases in England.

In [2019] EWHC 2656 (Ch) Paralel Routs v Fedotov, the claim is brought by the claimant, a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, but administered in Cyprus,  against the defendant, a Russian citizen, currently in prison in Russia. The defendant says that these proceedings have been brought as part of a process of so-called “corporate raiding” (“reiderstvo” in Russian) against him, by the claimant, at the instigation and direction of his former business associate.

Witnesses and evidence were the sticking point in the litigation, leading Matthews J to summarise the English law of civil proceedings, at 35 ff, concluding at 41:

‘decisions made by English civil judges are not necessarily the objective truth of the matter. Instead, they are the judge’s own assessment of the most likely facts based on the materials which the parties have chosen to place before the court, taking into account to some extent also what the court considers that they should have been able to put before the court but chose not to. And, whilst judges give their reasons for their decisions, they cannot and do not explain every little detail or respond to every point made.’

And at 95 ff just before conclusion, a robust defence of proper oral proceedings:

‘it is sometimes thought that the English procedural rules are too time-consuming and expensive to operate, without any corresponding advantage in terms of justice. But this is a case which amply illustrates the importance of procedural rules in ensuring a fair trial and the best opportunity to deliver a just result between the parties. This case illustrates the importance in particular of advance disclosure and production of documents in unredacted form, control by the court of expert evidence, and (at trial) cross-examination of witnesses, all properly pursued by a party’s lawyers. The persistence of the defendant’s legal team in enforcing these procedures has made all the difference in this case.

Geert.

Presse

On 17 October 2019 the island nation Palau acceded to the HCCH Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille Convention).

As indicated in the Depositary’s notification, the Apostille Convention will enter into force between the Republic of Palau and the other Contracting States, which have not raised an objection to its accession, on 23 June 2020.

This accession follows after an important neighbouring State joined the Apostille Convention, namely the Philippines (EIF: 14 May 2019).

This week the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) announced the release of a new publication: When Private International Law Meets Intellectual Property – A Guide for Judges. This Guide is co-authored by Annabelle Bennett (Australia) and Sam Granata (Belgium), with the co-ordination of the Secretariats of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the HCCH.

For more information, see the HCCH news item.

In [2019] EWHC 2776 (Fam) Ali v Rodrigues, claimant appreciated that the date of petition to divorce and date of and English respectively Scottish decrees are highly important to the husband’s immigration status. One way in which a former EEA family member can retain right of residence is if the marriage exceeded 3 years.

The husband was in Pakistan from 10th January 2016 to 18th February 2016. A certificate of entitlement to a divorce was issued on 21st March 2016 and decrees nisi and absolute were pronounced in the Romford (England) Family Court on, respectively, 12th April and 27th May 2016. That was the English decree. On 14th December 2016, the Home Office notified the husband that it was revoking his residence card on the basis that he was no longer a family member of an EEA national. The wife remarried in 2016, following the English decree and has sponsored her second husband’s application for leave to remain. The husband petitioned for divorce in Scotland on 27th September 2016, three years and five months after the date of the marriage and at least two years and three months from the date of the separation. On 6th November 2017, the Edinburgh Sherriff Court and Justice of the Peace Court pronounced the decree absolute, which is the Scottish decree.

If the English decree stands, the marriage will have lasted less than 3 years. If the Scottish decree stands, 3 years will have been exceeded. The husband essentially argues that the English decree is tainted by irregularity of service upon him. Lieven J held that the English decree should stand, on the basis that when it comes to failures related to service, it is appropriate to look at the nature of what went wrong and where the prejudice, if any, lies (at 36 ff). The wife took reasonable steps; and there are indications that the husband was trying to avoid service.

Given irregularities in service the English decree is voidable, but not void in the discretionary opinion of the court: the consequences of setting aside the English decree would more severe than that of the Scottish decree’s invalidity. If the English decree does not stand, the wife’s second marriage would have been made at a time when the first marriage persisted. That would be a very serious impact on her, her second husband and the child.

Geert.

Le traitement d’un mineur isolé étranger, à partir du moment où il a été considéré comme majeur par les autorités, n’a pas été contraire à la Convention, même s’il est resté quarante nuits sans solution d’hébergement, dans la mesure où le requérant n’établit pas ne pas avoir été en mesure de faire face à ses besoins élémentaires. 

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