The parties were both Danish, the plaintiffs resident in France and the defendants in London. The plaintiffs now sought to enforce a judgment obtained against the defendangt in France in default of their appearance. The defendants had no property in France, and the contract was not made there. It had been obtained under standard practice in France.
Held: Foreign judgments are to be enforced here on the basis that there is a duty to submit to the decree of a court of competent jurisdiction. However, anything which might negative such a duty operates as a defence. Thesee defendants were not French subjects and owed no allegiance even temporary to France, wree not there when the contracual obligations arose, had had no participation in the proceedings and were not subject to French jurisdiction. They had no obligation to submit to a jurisdiction assumed over foreigners and the judgment could not be enforced against them here.
Blackburn J
(1870-1871) LR 6 QB 155, (1870) LR QB 155, [1861-73] All ER Rep 988, 40 LJqB 73, 24 LT 93, 19 WR 587
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Vizcaya Partners Ltd v Picard and Another PC 3-Feb-2016
No Contractual Obligation to Try Case in New York
(Gibraltar) The appellant had invested in a fraudulent Ponzi scheme run by Bernard Madoff. They were repaid sums before the fund collapsed, and the trustees now sought repayment by way of enforcement of an order obtained in New York.
Held: The . .
Cited – Sirdar Gurdyal Singh v The Rajah of Faridkote PC 28-Jul-1894
(Punjab) THe Rajah of Faridkote had obtained in the Civil Court of Faridkote (a native state) ex parte judgments against Singh (his former treasurer), which he sought to enforce in Lahore, in British India. Singh was not then resident in Faridkote . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Jurisdiction
Leading Case
Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.565109