The parties were a divorced couple. A decree of the Danish court had given the husband power over his son. At the relevant time the son was living in Scotland with his father.
Held: It was simply not open to a Scottish court to help the wife by pronouncing a decree giving her access to her son in Scotland. The Court of Session cannot interfere with judgments of competent foreign courts. It would be contrary to all doctrines and considerations of comity to pronounce a decree with no other purpose than to undermine the judgments of competent courts, which are the product of a fair hearing.
Lord Justice Clerk Macdonald said: ‘The position of the matter is either that the judgment in Denmark is not final, in which case the Danish tribunal would be the proper place in which to apply for an order altering it, or that the judgment is final, in which case no foreign court can have any right to interfere.’
Lord Justice Clerk Macdonald
1914 SC 977
Scotland
Cited by:
Cited – Clarke v Fennoscandia Ltd and others (Scotland) HL 12-Dec-2007
After being awarded costs in proceedings in the US, the defendants chased the claimant for their costs in Scotland. He sought an interdict saying that the judgment had been obtained by fraud. The defendant had give an undertaking not to pursue the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 20 October 2021; Ref: scu.263793
