The UK Supreme Court has rejected
the test that the Supreme Court of Canada has enunciated for recognizing and
enforcing foreign judgments. Yesterday’s decision in Rubin v. Eurofinance (in full, here) comes
in the context of a request for enforcement of a judgment from the US Federal
Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The $10 million award
was based on fraudulent conveyances and transfers. But the judgment was in
default of appearance, meaning that the defendant, who was not a US resident,
had not submitted to the jurisdiction of the US court.
English law holds that the country’s
courts will not enforce foreign judgments against defendants who are not
resident of the court pronouncing the judgment
and who do not submit to the jurisdiction of that court. The UK Supreme
Court rejected the argument that the rule should be expanded in the context of
insolvency proceedings.
In doing so, the UK Supreme Court
explicitly rejected the “real and substantial connection” test approved by the
Supreme Court of Canada as the test for Canadian courts to use in deciding
whether to recognize and enforce foreign judgments. ”There is no support in
England for [the real and substantial connection] approach except in the field
of family law,” the UK court stated in refusing to recognize the US judgment.