Ontario courts will generally recognize and uphold foreign judgments duly obtained and will not relitigate the underlying facts and issues if the foreign judgment is proven and final.
In practice, this means that foreign judgments for definite sums of money will generally be recognized in the Ontario court, and namely those monetary judgments from jurisdictions where there is comity, i.e. mutual recognition of court judgments between the two jurisdictions in the past.
There are exceptions and defences, however, to the recognition of foreign judgments. Ontario courts will examine whether the foreign judgment had or involved:
- evidence of fraud
- violations of natural justice
- legal substance or procedure contrary to public policy
- absence of a real and substantial connection of the jurisdiction to the subject matter
- lack of comity between the foreign jurisdiction and Canada
For recognition of non-monetary judgments, the Ontario court will also consider the following questions:
- Are the terms of the court order clear and specific enough to ensure that the respondents will know what is expected of them?
- Is the court order limited in scope and did the originating court retain the power to issue further orders?
- Is the recognition and enforcement the least burdensome remedy for the Canadian justice system?
- Are any third parties affected by the order?
- Will the use of judicial resources be consistent with what would be allowed for domestic litigants? [CanLii]
If there is a real or apparent unfairness arising from the foreign proceedings or from the subsequent recognition in Canada, a defendant may seek to avoid recognition of the foreign judgment. Absent these factors, there is a limited number of exceptions that would avoid recognition.
For this reason, the primary challenge of enforcing foreign judgments is often collections and identification of assets – identifying and obtaining funds and property from the defendant that would pay the judgment.
For more information about the recognition of foreign judgments in Ontario, SEE Justice Perell’s summary and analysis of the law in Ontario in Dead End Survival, LLC v. Marhasin, 2019 ONSC 3453, and our blog post 7 Things to Know About Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Ontario.
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