after stating- the case, delivered the opinion of the court.
These two cases, the one at law and the other in equity, of
Hilton
v.
Guyot,
and the case of
Ritchie
v.
McMullen
which has been under advisement at the same time, present important questions relating to the force and effect of foreign judgments, not hitherto adjudicated by this court, which have been argued
International law, in its widest and most comprehensive sense — including not only questions of right between nations, governed by what has been appropriately called the law of nations; but also questions, arising. under what is usually called private international law, or the conflict of laws, and concerning the rights of persons within the territory' and dominion of one nation, by reason of acts, private or public, done within the dominions of another nation — is part of our law, and must bé ascertained and administered by the cpurts of justice, as often as such questions are presented in litigation between man and man, duly submitted to their determination.
The most certain guide, no doubt, for the decision of such questions is a treaty or.a statute of this country. But when, as is the case here, there is no written law upon the subject, the duty still rests upon the judicial tribunals of ascertaining and declaring what the law is, whenever it becomes necessary to do so, in order to determine the rights of parties to suits regularly brought before them. In doing this, the courts must obtain such aid ag they can from judicial decisions, from the works of jurists and commentators, and from the acts and usages of civilized nations.
Fremont
v.
United States, 17
How. 542, 557;
The Scotia,
No law has any effect, of its own force, beyond the limits of the sovereignty from which its authority is derived. The extent to which the law of * one nation, as put in force within its territory, whether by executive order, by legislative act, or by judicial decree, shall be allowed to operate within the dominion of another nation, depends upon what our greatest jurists have been content to call “the comity of nations.” Although the phrase has. been often criticised, no satisfactory substitute has been suggested.
“ Comity,” in the legal sense, is neither a matter of absolute
Mr. Justice Story, in his Commentaries on the Conflict of Laws, treating of the question in what department of the government of any State, in the absence of any clear declaration of the sovereign will, resides the authority to determine how far the laws of a foreign State shall have effect, and observing that this differs in different States, according to the organization of the departments оf the government of each, says: “In England and America, the courts of justice have hitherto exercised the same authority in the most ample manner: and the legislatures have in no instance (it is believed) in either country interfered to provide any positive regulations. The common law of both countries has been expanded to meet the exigencies of the times as they have arisen; and so far as the practicó of nations, or the Jus gentium privatum, has been supposed to furnish any general principle, it has been followed out.” Story’s Conflict of Laws, §§ 23, 24.
Afterwards, speaking of the difficulty of applying the positive rules laid down by the Continental jurists, he says that “there is indeed great truth” in these remarks of Mr. Justice Porter, speaking for the Supreme Court of Louisiana: “ They have attempted to go too far, to define and fix that which cannot, in the nature of things, be defined and fixed. They seem to have forgotten that they wrote on a question which touched the comity of nations, and that that comity is, and ever must be,
uncertain;
that it must necessarily depend on a variety of circumstances which cannot be reduced to any certain rule; that no nation will suffer the laws of another to interfere with her own to the injury of her citizens; that whether they do or not must depend oh the condition of the country in which the foreign law is sought to be enforced, the particular nature of her legislation, her policy, and the char
Again: Mr. Justice Story says: “ It has been thought by some jurists that the term comity is not sufficiently expressive of the obligation of nations to give effect to foreign laws when they are not prejudicial to their own rights and interests. And it has been suggested that the doctrine rests on a deeper foundation ; that it is not so much~a matter of comity or courtesy, as a matter of paramount moral duty. Now, assuming that such a moral duty does exist, it is clearly one of imperfect obligation, like that of beneficence, humanity and charity. Every nation must be the final judge for itself, not only of the nature and extent of the duty, but of the occasions on which its exercise may be justly demanded.” And', after further discussion of the matter, he concludes : “ There is then not only no impropriety in the use of the phrase comity of nations,’ but it is the most appropriate phrase to express the true foundation and extent of the obligation of the laws of one nation within the territories of another.” Story’s Conflict of Laws, §§ 33-38.
Chief Justice Taney, likewise, speaking for this court while Mr. Justice Story was a' member of it, and largely adopting his words, said : It is needless to enumerate here the instances in which, by the general practice of civilized countries, the laws of the one will, by the comity of nations, be recognized and executed in another, wThere the rights of individuals are concerned.” “The comity thus extended to other nations is no impeachment of sovereignty. It is the voluntary act of the nation by which it is offered, and is inadmissible when contrary to its policy, or prejudicial to its interests. But it contributes so largely to promote justice between individuals, and to' produce a friendly intercourse between the sovereign-ties to which they belong, that courts of justice have continually acted upon it, as a part of the voluntary law of nations.” “ It is not the comity of the courts, but the comity
Mr. Wheaton says: “ All the effect, which foreign laws can havfe in the territory of a State, depends absolutely on the éxpress or tacit consent of that State.” “The express consent of a State, to the application' of foreign laws within its territory, is given by acts passed by its legislative authority, or by treaties concluded with other States. Its tacit consent is manifested by the decisions of its judicial and administrative authorities, as well as by- the writings of its publicists. There is no obligation, recognized by legislators, public authorities, and publicists, to regard foreign laws; but their application is admitted, only from considerations of utility and the mutual convenience of States — ex comitate, ob reciprocam utiHtatem.” Wheaton’s International Law, (8th ed.) §§ 78, 79. “ No sovereign is bound, unless by special compact, to execute within his dominions a judgment rendered by the tribunals of another State; and if execution be sought by suit upon the judgment, or otherwise, the tribunal in which the suit is brought, or from which execution is sought, is, on principle, at liberty to examine into the merits of such judgment, and to give effect to it or not, as may be found just and equitable. The general comity, utility and convenience of nations have, however, established a usage among most civilized States, by which the final judgments of foreign courts of competent jurisdiction are reciprocally carried into execution, under certain regulations and restrictions, which differ in different countries.’-’ § 147.
Chancellor Kent says: “ The effect to be given to foreign judgments is altogether a matter of comity, in cases where it is not regulated by treaty.” 2 Kent Com. (6th ed.) 120.
In order to appreciate the weight of the various authorities cited at the bar, it is important to distinguish.different kinds of judgments. ' Every foreign judgment, of whatever nature, in order to be entitled to any effect, must have' been rendered
A judgment
in
rem, adjudicating the title to a ship or other movable property within the custody of the court, is treated as valid everywhere. .As said by Chief' Justice Marshall: “The sentence of a competent court, proceeding
in
rem, is ■conclusive with respect to the thing itself, and operates as -an. absolute change of the property. By such sentence, the right of the former owner is lost, and a complete title given to the person who claims under the decree. No court of coordinate jurisdiction can examine the sentence. The question, therefore, respecting its conformity to general or municipal law can never arise, for no coordinate tribunal is capable of making the inquiry.”
Williams
v. Armroyd,
• A judgment affecting the status of persons, such as a decree confirming or dissolving a marriage, is recognized as valid in every country; unless contrary to the policy of its own law.
Cottington’s case,
2 Swanston, 326;
Roach
v.
Garvan,
1 Ves. Sen. 157;
Harvey
v.
Farnie,
8 App. Cas. 43;
Cheely
v.
Clayton,
Other judgments, not strictly
in rem,
under which a person has been compelled to pay money, are so far conclusive that the justice of the payment cannot be impeached in another country, so as to compel him to pay it again. For instance, a judgment in foreign attachment is conclusive, as between the parties, of the right to the property or money attached. Story on Conflict of Laws, (2d ed.) § 592
a.
And if, on the dissolution of a partnership, one partner promises to indemnify the other against the debts of the partnership, a judgment for such a debt, under which the latter has been compelled to pay it, is conclusive evidence of the debt in a suit by him to recover the amount upon the promise of indemnity. It' was of such a judgment, and in such a suit, that Lord Nottingham said: “ Let the plaintiff receive back so much of the money brought into court as may be adequate to the sum paid on the sentence for custom, the justice whereof is not examinable here.”
Gold
v.
Canham,
(1689) 2 Swanston, 325;
S. C. 1
Cas. in Ch. 311. See also
Tarleton
v.
Tarleton,
4 M. & S. 20;
Konitzky
v.
Meyer,
Other foreign judgments which have been held conclusive of the matter adjudged were judgments discharging obligations contracted in the foreign country between citizens or residents thereof. Story’s Conflict of Laws, §§ 330-341;
May
v.
Breed,
In that case, bills of exchange, drawn in London, were negotiated, indorsed and accepted at Leghorn in Italy, by the law of which an acceptance became void if the drawer failed without leaving effects in the acceptor’s hands. The acceptor, accordingly, having received advices that the drawer had failed
The remark of Lord Hardwicke, arguendo, as Chief Justice, in Boucher v. Lawson, (1734) that “ the reason gone upon by Lord Chancellor King, in the case of Burroughs v. Jamineau, was certainly right, that where any court, whether foreign or domestic, that has the proper jurisdiction of the case, makes a determination, it is conclusive to all other courts,” evidently had reference, as the context shows, to judgments of a court having jurisdiction of the thing; and did not touch the effect of an executory judgment for a debt. Cas. temp. Hardw. 85. 89; S. C. Cunningham, 144, 148.
In former times, foreign decrees in admiralty
im, personam
were executed, even by imprisonment of the defendant, by the Court of Admiralty in England, upon letters rogatory from the foreign sovereign, without a new suit. Its right to
. The extraterritorial effect of judgments
in personam,
at -law or in equity, may differ, according to the parties to the cause. . A judgment of that kind between two citizens or residents of the country, .and thereby subject to the jurisdiction, in which it is rendered, may be held conclusive as between them everywhere. So, if a foreigner invokes the jurisdiction by bringing an action against a citizen, both may be held bound by a judgment in favor of either. And if a citizen sues a foreigner, and judgment is rendered in favor of the latter, both may be held equally bound.
Ricardo
v.
Garcias,
12 Cl. & Fin. 368;
The Griefswald,
Swabey, 430, 435;
Barber
v.
Lamb,
8 C. B. (N. S.) 95;
Lea
v.
Deakin,
The effect to which a judgment, purely executory, rendered
Early in the last century, it was settled in England that a foreign judgment on a debt was considered not, like a judgment of a domestic court of record, as a record or a specialty, .a lawful consideration for which was conclusively presumed; but as a simple contract only.
This clearly appears in Dupleix v. De Raven, (1706) where one of two merchants in France recovered a judgment there against the other for a sum of money,- which, not being paid, he brought a suit in chancery in England for a discovery of assets and satisfaction of the debt; and the defendant pleaded the statute of limitations of six years, and prevailed, Lord Keeper Cowper saying: “ Although the plaintiff obtained a judgment or sentence in France, yet here the debt must be considered as a debt by simple contract. The plaintiff can maintain no action here, but an indebitatus, assumpsit or an insimul computassent; so that the statute of limitations’ is pleadable in this case.” 2 Vernon, 540.
Several opinions of Lord Hardwicke define and illustrate the effect of foreign judgments, when sued on or pleaded in England.
In Otway v. Ramsay, (1736) in the King’s Bench, Lord Hardwicke treated it as worthy of consideration, “ what credit is to be given by one court to the courts of another nation, proceeding both by the same rules of law,” and said, “ It is very desirable, in such case, that the judgment given in one kingdom should be considered as res judicata in another.”. But it was held that debt would not lie in Ireland upon an English judgment, because “Ireland must be considered as a provincial kingdom, part of the dominions of the Crown of England, but. no part of the realm,” and an action of debt on a judgment was local. 4 B. & C. 414-416, note; S. C. 14 Vin. Ab. 569, pl. 5; 2 Stra. 1090.
A decision of Lord Hardwicke as Chancellor was mentioned
In
Gage
v. Bulkeley, (1744) briefly reported in.3 Atk. 215, cited by the plaintiffs, a plea of a foreign sentence in a commissary court in France was overruled by Lord Hardwicke, saying, “ It is the most proper case to stand for an answer, with liberty to except, that I ever met with.” His reasons are fully stated in two other reports of the case. According 'to one of them, at the opening of the argument he said: “ Can a sentence or judgment pronounced by a foreign jurisdiction be pleaded in this kingdom to a demand for the same thing in any court of justice here? I always thought it could not, because every sentence, having its authority from the sovereign in whose dominions it is given, cannot bind the jurisdiction of foreign courts, who own not the same authority,
In
Roach
v. Garvan, (1748) where an infant ward of the Court of Chancery had been married in France by her guardian to his son before a French court, and the son “ petitioned for a decree for cohabitation with his wife, and to have some money out of the bank,” Lord Hardwicke said, as to the validity of the marriage: “ It has been argued to be valid from being established by the sentence of a court in France, having proper jurisdiction. And it is true, that if so, it is conclusive, whether in a foreign court or not, from the law of nations in such cases; otherwise the rights of mankind would be very precarious and uncertain. But the question is, whether this is a proper sentence, in a proper cause, and between proper
These decisions of Lord Hardwicke demonstrate that in his-opinion, whenever the question was of giving effect to a foreign judgment.for money, in a suit in.England between the parties, it did not have .the. weight of a domestic judgment, and could not be considered as a bar, or as conclusive, but only as evidence of the' samo weight as a simple contract, and the propriety and justice of the judgment might be examined.
In
Sinclair
v. Fraser, (1771) the appellaht, having as' attorney in Jamaica made large advances for his constituent in Scotland, and having been superseded in.office, brought an action before the Supreme Court of Jamaica, and, after appearance, obtained judgment against him; and afterwards brought an action against him in Scotland upon that judgment. The Court of Session determinad that'the plaintiff was bound to prove before it the ground, nature and extent of the demand on which the judgment in Jamaica was obtained; and therefore gave judgment against him. But the House of Lords, (in which, as remarked by one reporter, Lord Mansfield was then the presiding spirit, acting in concert with, or for the Lord Chancellor, in disposing of the Scotch appeals,) “ ordered and declared that the judgment of the Supreme Court of Jamaica ought to be received as evidence
prima facie
of the debt; and that it lies upon the defendant to impeach the. justice thereof, or to show the same to have been irregularly obtained; ” and therefore reversed the judgment of the Court of Session. 2 Paton, ix, 253;
S. C.
Morison Dict. Dec. 4542;
In
Walker
v. Witter, (1778) an action .of debt was brought in England upon a judgment recovered in Jamaica. The defendant pleaded
nil debét,
and
nul tiel record.
Judgment was given for the plaintiff, Lord Mansfield saying: “ The plea of
nul tiel record
was improper. Though the plaintiffs had called the judgment a record, yet by the additional words in the declaration, it was clear they did not mean that sort of record to which implicit faith is given by the courts of .Westminster Hall. They had not misled the. court nor the defendant, for they spoke of it as a record of a court in Jamaica. The question was brought to a narrow point; for it was admitted on the park of the defendánt, that
indebitatus assumpsit
would have lain; and on the part of the plaintiffs, that the judgment Avas
only prima facie
evidence of the debt. That being so, the judgment Avas not a specialty, but the debt only a simple contract debt; for assumpsit will not lie on a specialty. The difficulty in the case had arisen from not fixing accurately Avhat a court of record is in the eye of the law. That description is confined properly to certain courts in England, and their judgments cannot be controverted. Foreign courts, and courts in England not of record, have not that privilege, nor the courts in Wales, etc.- But the doctrine in the case of
Sinclair
v.
Fraser
was unquestionable. Foreign judgments are
In Herbert v. Cook, (1782) again, in an action of debt upon á judgment of an inferior English court, not a court of record, Lord Mansfield said that it was “ like a foreign judgment, and not conclusive evidence of the debt.” Willes, 36, note.
In
Galbraith
v.
Neville,
(1789) upon a motion for a new trial after verdict for the plaintiff, in an action of debt on a judgment of the Supreme Court of Jamaica, Lord Kenyon expressed
“
very serious doubts concerning the doctrine laid down in
Walker
v.
Witter,
that foreign judgments are not. binding on the parties.here.” But Mr. Justice Buller said: “The doctrine which was laid down in
Sinclair
v.
Fraser
has always been considered as the true line ever since; namely, that the foreign judgment shall be
prima facie
evidence of the debt, and conclusive till it be impeached by the other party.” “ As to actions of .this sort, see how far the court could go, if what was said in
Walker
v.
Witter
were departed from. It was there held, that the foreign judgment was only to be taken to be right
prima facie ;
that is, we will allow the same force to a foreign judgment, that we do to those of our own courts' not of record. But, if the matter were carried farther, we should give them more credit; we should give them equal force with those of courts of record here. Novf a foreign judgment has never been considered as a record. It cannot be declared on as such, and a plea of
nul tiel record,
in such a case, is a mere 'nullity. How then can it have the same obligatory force? In short, the result is this ; that it is
prima facie
evidence of the justice of the demand in an action of assumpsit, having no more credit than is given to' every species of written agreement,
viz.
that it shall be considered as good till it is impeached.”
In Messin v. Massareene, (1791) the plaintiff, having obtained a judgment against the defendants in a French court, brought an action of assumpsit upon it in England, and, the defendants having suffered a default, moved for á reference to a master, and for a final judgment on his report, without executing a writ of inquiry. The motion was denied, Lord Kenyon saying,This is an attempt to carry the rule farther than has yet been done, and as there is no instance of the kind I am not disposed to make a precedent for it; ” and Mr. Justice Buller saying, “ Though debt will lie here on a foreign judgment, the defendant may go into the consideration of it.” 4 T. R. 493.
In Bayley v. Edwards, (1792) the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, upon appeal from Jamaica, held that a suit in equity pending in England was not a good plea in bar to a subsequent bill in Jamaica for the same matter ; and Lord Camden said: “ In Gage v. Bulkeley,” (evidently referring to the full report in Eidgeway, above quoted, which had been cited by counsel,) “Lord Ilardwicke’s reasons go a great way to show the true effect of foreign sentences in this country. And all the cases show that foreign sentences are not conclusive bars here, but only evidence of the demand.” 3 Swanston, 703, 708, 710.
In Phillips v. Hunter, (1795) the House of Lords, in accordance with the opinion of the majority of the judges consulted, and against that of Chief Justice Eyre, decided that a creditor of an English bankrupt, who had obtained payment of his debt by foreign attachment in Pennsylvania, was liable to an action for the money by the assignees in bankruptcy in England. But it was agreed, on all hands, that the judgment in Pennsylvania and payment under it were conclusive as between the garnishee and the plaintiff in that suit. And the distinction between the effect of a foreign judgment which vests title, and of one which only declares that a certain sum of,money is due, was clearly stated by Chief Justice Eyre, as follows:
“ It is in one way only, that the sentence or judgment of a court of a foreign state is examinable in our courts, and that is, Avhen.the party who claims the benefit of it applies to oúr courts to enforce it. When it is thus voluntarily submitted to our jurisdiction, we treat it, not as obligatory to the extent to which it would be obligatory, perhaps, in the country in which it was pronounced, "nor as obligatory to the extent to which, by our law, sentences and judgments are obligatory, not as conclusive, but as matter in pais, as consideration prima facie sufficient to raise a promise. We examine it as we do all other considerations or promises, and for that purpose we receive evidence of what the law of the foreign State is, and whether the judgment is • Avarranted by that law.” 2 H. Bl. 402, 409, 410. •
In Wright v. Simpson, (1802) Lord Chancellor Eldon said : “Natural law requires the courtá of this country to give credit to those of another for the inclination and power to do justice; -but not, if that presumption is proved to be ill founded in that transaction,'which is the subject of it; and if it appears in evidence, that persons suing under similar circumstances neither had met, nor could meet, with justice, that fact cannot be immaterial as an answer to the presumption.” 6 Ves. 714, 730.
In Buchanan v. Rucker, (1807) in assumpsit upon a judgment rendered in the island of Tobago, the defendant pleaded non assumpsit, and prevailed, because it appeared that he was not a resident of the island, and was neither personally .served with process nor came in to defend, and the'only notice was, according to the practice of the court, by nailing up a copy of the declaration at the court-house door. It was argued that “ the presumption was in favor of a foreign judgment, as well as of a judgment obtainedin one of the courts of this country.” To which Lord Ellenborough. answered: “ That may be so, if the judgment appears, on the face of 'it, consistent with reason and justice ; but it is contrary to the first' principles of reason and justice, that, either in civil or criminal proceedings, a man should be condemned before he is heard.” “There might be such glaring injustice on .the face of a foreign judgment, or it might have a vice rendering it so ludicrous, that, it could not raise an assumpsit, and, if submitted to the jurisdiction of the courts of this country, could not be enforced.” 1 Camp. 63, 66, 67. A motion for a new trial was denied. 9 East, 192. And see Sadler v. Robins, (1808) 1 Camp. 253, 256.
In Hall v. Odber, (1809) in assumpsit upon a judgment' obtained in Canada, with other counts on the original debt, Lоrd Ellenborough-and Justices Grose, Le Blanc and Bayle} agreed that a foreign judgment was not to be considered.' as having the same force as a domestic judgment, but only that of a simple contract between the parties, and did not merge the original cause of action, but was only evidence of the debt, and therefore assumpsit would lie, either upon the judgment, or upon the original cause of action. 11 East, 118.
In
Tarleton
v.
Tarleton,
(1815) on the other hand, the action was brought upon a covenant of indemnity in an agreement •for dissolution of a partnership, to recover a sum which the
In Harris v. Saunders, (1825) Chief Justice Abbott (after-wards Lord Tenterden) and his associates, upon the authority of Otway v. Ramsay, above cited, held that, even since the Act of Union of 39 & 40 Geo. Ill, c. 67, assumpsit would lie in England upon a judgment recovered in Ireland, because such a judgment could not be considered a specialty debt in England. 4 B. & C. 411; S. C. 6 D. & R. 471.
The English cases, above referred to, have been stated with the more particularity and detail, because they directly bear upon the question what was the English law, being then our own law, before the Declaration of Independence. They demonstrate that by that law, as generally understood, and' as declared by Hardwicke, Mansfield, Buffer, Camden, Eyre and Ellenborough, and doubted by Kenyon only, a judgment recovered in a foreign country for a sum of money, when sued upon in. England, was only prima facie evidence of the demand, and subject to be examined and impeached. The law of England, since it has become to us a foreign country, will be considered afterwards.
The law upon this subject, as understood in the United States, at the time of their separation from the mother country, was clearly set forth by Chief Justice Parsons, speaking for the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, in 1813, and by Mr. Justice Story, in his Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, published in 1833. Both those
It was because of that condition of the law, as .between the American Colonies and States, that the United States, at the very beginning of their existence as a nation, ordained that full faith and credit should be given to the judgments of one of the States of the Union in the courts of another of those States.
By the Articles of Confederation of 1777, art. 4, § 3, “ Full faith and credit shall be given, in each of these States, to the records, acts and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every other State.” 1 Stat. 4. By the Constitution of the United States, art. 4, § 1,
“
Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records and judicial proceedings of every other State; and the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.” And the first Congress of the United States under the Constitution, after prescribing the manner in which the records and judicial proceedings of the courts of any State should be authenticated and proved, enacted that “ the said records and judicial proceedings, authenticated .as aforesaid, shall have
The effect of these provisions of the Constitution and laws of the United States was at first a subject of diverse opinions, not only, in the courts of the several States, but also in the Circuit Courts of the United States; Mr. Justice Cushing, Mr. Justice Wilson and Mr. Justice Washington holding that judgments of the courts of a State had the same effect throughout the Union as within that State; but Chief Justice Marshall (if accurately reported) being of opinion that they were not entitled to conclusive effect, and that their consideration might be impeached.
Armstrong
v. Carson, (1794)
The decisions of this court have clearly recognized that judgments of a foreign state are prima fade evidence only, and that, but for these constitutional and legislative provisions, judgments of a State of the Union, when sued upon in another State, would have no greater effect.
In
Croudson
v.
Leonard,
(1808) in which this court held that the sentence of a foreign court of admiralty
in
rem, condemning a vessel for breach of blockade, was conclusive evidence of that fact in an action on a policy of insurance, Mr. Justice Washington, after speaking of the conclusiveness of domestic judgments generally, said: “ The judgment óf a foreign court is equally conclusive, except in the single instance where .the party claiming the benefit of it applies to the courts in England to enforce it, in which case only the judgment is
prima fade
evidence. But it is to be remarked, that in such a case, the judgment is no more conclusive as to the right it establishes, than as to the fact it decides.”
■ In
Mills
v.
Duryee,
(1813) in which it was established that, by virtue of the. Constitution and laws of the United States, the judgment of a court of one of the States was conclusive
In
Hampton v. McConnel,
(1818) the point decided in
Mills
v.
Duryee
was again adjudged, without further discussion, in an opinion delivered by Chief Justice Marshall.
The
obiter dictum
of Mr. Justice Livingston in
Hopkins
v. Lee, (1821)
In
McElmoyle
v.
Cohen,
(1839) Mr. Justice Wayne, discuss: ing the effect of the act of Congress of 1790, said, that “ the adjudications of-the English courts have now established the rule to be, that foreign judgments are
prima facie
evidence of the right and matter they purport to .decide.”
In
D'Arcy
v.
Ketchum,
(1850) in which this court held that the provisions of the Constitution and laws of the United States gave no effect in one State to judgments rendered in another .State by a court having no jurisdiction of the cause or of the parties, Mr. Justice Catron said:'“In construing the act of 1790, the law as it stood when the act was passed
In
Christmas
v.
Russell,
(1866) in which this court decided that, because of the Constitution and laws Of the United States, a judgment of a court of one State of the Union, when .sued upon in a court of another, could not be shown to have been procured by fraud, Mr. Justice Clifford, in delivering the opinion, after stating that, under the rules of the common law, a domestic judgment, rendered in a court of competent jurisdiction, could not be collaterally impeached or called in question, said: “ Common law rules placed foreign judgments upon a different footing, and those rules remain, as a general remark; unchanged to the present time. Under these rules, a foreign judgment was
prima facie
evidence of the debt, and it was open to examination, not only to show that the court in which it was rendered had no jurisdiction of the subject-matter, but also to show that the judgment was fraudulently obtained.”
In
Bischoff
v.
Wethered,
(1869) in an action on an English judgment rendered without notice to the defendant, other, than. by service on him in this country, this court, speaking by Mr. Justice Bradley, held that the proceeding in England “was wholly without jurisdiction of the person, and whatever validity it may have in England, by virtue of statute law, against property of the defendant there situate, it can have no validity here, even of
& prima facie
character.”
But neither in those cases, nor in any other, has this court hitherto been called upon to determine how far foreign judgments may be reexamined upon their merits, or be impeached for fraud in obtaining them.
In. the courts of the several States, it was long recognized and assumed, as undoubted and indisputable, that by our law, as by the law of England, foreign judgments for debts were-not conclusive, but onl y prima facie evidence of the matter adjudged. Some of the cases are collected in the margin. 1
In the leading case of
Bissell
v.
Briggs,
above cited, Chief Justice Parsons said : “ A foreign judgment may be produced here by a party to it, either to justify himself by .the execution of that judgment in the country in which it was rendered, or to obtain the execution of it from our courts.”
“
If the foreign court rendering the judgment had jurisdiction of the cause, yet the courts here will not execute the judgment, without first
In a less known case, decided in 1815, but not published until 1879, the reasons for this view were forcibly stated by Chief Justice Jeremiah Smith, speaking for the Supreme Court of New Hampshire, as follows:
“The respect which is due to judgments, sentences and decrees of courts in- a foreign State, by the law of nations, seems to be the same which is due to those of our own courts. Hence the decree of an admiralty court abroad is equally conclusive with decrees of our admiralty courts. Indeed, both courts proceed by the same rule, are governed by the same law — the maritime law of nations: Coll. Jurid. 100; which is the universal law of nations, except where treaties alter it.
“ The same comity is not extended to judgments or decrees which may be founded on the municipal laws of the State in which they are pronounced, Independent States do not choose to adopt such decisions without examination. These laws and regulations may be unjust, partial to citizens, and against foreigners; they may operate injustice to our citizens, whom we are bound to protect; they may be, and the decisions of courts founded on them, just cause of complaint against the supreme power of the State where rendered. To adopt them is not merely saying that the courts, have decided correctly on the law, but it is approbating the law itself. Wherever, then, the court may have proceeded on municipal
From this review of the authorities, it clearly appears that, at the time of the separation of this country from England,, 'the general rule was fully established that foreign judgments in personam were pri/ma facie evidence only, and not conclusive of the merits of the controversy between the parties. But the extent and 'limits of the application of that rule do not appear to have been much discussed, or defined with any approach to exactness, in England or America, until the matter was taken up by Chancellor Kent and by Mr. Justice Story.
In
Taylor
v. Bryden, (1811) an action of assumpsit, brought in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, on a judgment obtained" in the State of Maryland against the defendant as indorser of a bill of exchange, and which was treated as a foreign judgment, so far as concerned its effect in New ’ York, (the decision of this court to the contrary in
Mills
v.
Duryee,
Chancellor Kent, afterwards, treating of the siame- subject' in the first edition of his Commentaries, (1827) put the right to impeach a foreign judgment somewhat more broadly, saying: “No sovereign is obliged to execute, within his dominión, a sentence rendered out of it; and if execution be sought by a suit upon the judgment, or otherwise; he is at liberty, in his courts of justice) to examine into the merits of .such judgment [for the. effect to be given to foreign judgments is altogether’ a matter of comity, in cases where it is not regulated by treaty]. In the former case, [of a suit to enforce a foreign judgment,] the rule is, that the foreign judgment is to be received, in the first instance, as
prima, facie
evidence of the debt; and it lies on the defendant to impeach the justice of it, or tó show that it was irregularly and unduly obtained. This-was the principle declared and settled by the House of Lords, in 1771, in the case of
Sinclair
v.
Fraser,
upon an appeal from the Court of Session in Scotland.” In the second edition, (1832) he inserted the passages above printed in brackets ; and in a note to the fourth edition, (1840) after citing recent conflicting opinions in Great Britain, and referring to Mr. Justice Story’s reasoning in his Commentaries on the Conflict of Laws,-§ 607, in favor of the conclusivehess of foreign judgments, he added, “ and that is certainly the more convenient and the safest rule, and the most consistent with sound principle, except in cases in which the court which pronounced the judgment has not due jurisdiction of the case,- or of the
Mr. Justice Story, in his Commentaries on the Conflict of Laws, first published in 1834, after reviewing many English authorities, said, “The present inclination of the English courts seems to be to sustain the conclusiveness of foreign judgments ” — to which, in the second edition in 1841, he added, “although certainly there yet remains no inconsiderable diversity of opinion among the learned judges of the different tribunals.” § 606.
He then proceeded to state his own view of the subject, on principle, saying: “ It is, indeed, very difficult to perceive what could be done, if a different doctrine were maintainable to the full extent of opening all the evidence and merits of the cause anew on a suit upon the foreign judgment. Some of the witnesses' may be since dead; some of the vouchers may be lost or destroyed. The merits, of the cause, as formerly before the court upon the whole evidence, may have been decidedly in favor of the judgment; upon a partial possession of the original evidence, they may now appear otherwise. Suppose a case purely sounding in damages, such as an action for an assault, for slander, for conversion of property, for a malicious prosecution, or for a criminal conversation; is the defendant to be at liberty to retry the whole merits, and to make out, if he can, a new case upon new evidence ? Or is the court to review the former decision, like a court of appeal, upon the old evidence ? In a case of covenant, or. of debt or of a breach of contract, are all the circumstances to be reexamined anew ? If they are, by what laws and rules of evidence and principles of justice is the validity of the original judgment to be tried? Is the court to open the judgment, and to proceed
ex mquo et bono f
Or is it to administer strict law, and stand to the doctrines of the local administration of justice ? Is it to act upon the rules of evidence acknowledged in its own jurisprudence, or upon those of the foreign jurisprudence ? These and many more questions might be put to
He then observed: “ The general. doctrine maintained in the American courts in relation to foreign judgments certainly is that they are prima facie evidence, but that they are impeachable. But how far and to what extent this doctrine is to be carried does not seem to be definitely settled. It has been declared that the jurisdiction of the court, and its power over the parties' and the things in controversy, may be inquired into; and that the judgment may be impeached for fraud. Beyond this no definite lines have as yet been drawn.” § 608.
After stating the effect of the Constitution of the United States, and referring to the opinions of some foreign jurists, and to the law of France, which allows the merits of ‘foreign judgments to be examined, Mr. Justice Story concluded his treatment of the subject as follows:
“
It is difficult to ascertain what the prevailing rule is in regard to foreign judgments in some of the other nations of continental Europe; whether they are deemed conclusive evidence, or only
prima facie
evidence. Holland seems at all times, upon the general principle of reciprocity, to have given great weight to foreign judgments, and in many cases, if not in all cases, to have given to them a weight equal to that given to domestic judgments, wherever the like rule of reciprocity with regard to Dutch
In Bradstreet v. Neptune Ins. Co., (1839) in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts, Mr. Justice Story said: “If a civilized nation seeks to have the sentences of its own courts held of any validity elsewhere, they ought to have a just regard to the rights and usages of other civilized nations, and the principles of public and national law in the administration of justice.” 3 Sumner, 600, 608, 609.
In.
Burnham
v.
Webster,
(1845) in an action of assumpsit upon a promissory note, brought in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Maine, the defendant pleaded a former judgment in the Province of New Brunswick in his favor in an action there brought by the plaintiff; the plaintiff replied that the note was withdrawn from that suit, by consent of parties and leave of the court, before verdict and judgment; and the defendant demurred to the replication. Judge Ware, in overruling the demurrer, said': “Whatever difference of opinion there may be as to the binding force of foreign judgments, all agree that they are not entitled to the same authority as the judgments of domestic courts of general jurisdiction. They are but evidence of what they purport to decide, and liable to be controlled by counter evidence, and do not, like domestic judgments, import absolute verity and remain incontrovertible and conclusive until reversed.” And • he added that, if the question stood entirely clear from authority, he should be of opinion that the plaintiff could not be allowed to deny the validity of the proceedings of a court whose authority he had invoked.
. At a. subsequent trial of that case before a jury, (1846) 1 Woodb. & Min. 172, the defendant proved the judgment in New Brunswick. The plaintiff then offered to prove the facts stated in his replication, and that any entry on the record of the judgment in New Brunswick concerning this note was therefore by mistake or inadvertence. This evidence was
“ They do, like domestic ones, operate conclusively, exproprio vigore, within the governments in which they are rendered, but not elsewhere. When offered and considered elsewhere, they are, ex comitate, treated with respect, according to the nature of the judgment, and the character of the tribunal which rendered it, and the reciprocal mode, if any, in which that government treats our judgments, and according to the party offering it, whether having sought or assented to it voluntarily or not, so as to give it in some degree the force of a contract, and hence to be respected elsewhere by analogy according to the lex loci contractus. With these views, I would go to the whole extent of the cases decided by Lord Mansfield and Buller; and where the foreign judgment is not in rem, as it is in admiralty? having the subject-matter before the court, and acting on that rather than the parties, I would consider it only prima facie evidence as between the parties to it.” p. 175.
“By returning to that rule,-we are enabled to give parties, at times, most needed and most substantial relief, such as in judgments abroad against them without notice, or without a hearing On the merits, or by accident or mistake of facts, as here, or on rules of evidence and rules of law they never assented to, being foreigners and their contracts made elsewhere, but happening to be travelling through a foreign jurisdiction, and being compelled in imvitum to litigate there.” p. 177.
“Nor would I permit the prima facie force of the foreign judgment to go far, if the court was one of a barbarous or semi-barbarous government, and acting on no established principles of civilized jurisprudence, and not resorted to willingly by both parties, or both not inhabitants and citizens of the country. Nor can much comity be asked for the judgments of another nation, which, like France, pays no respect to those of other countries — except, as before remarked, on the principle of the parties belonging there, or assenting to a trial there.” p. 179.
In De Brimont v. Penniman, (1873) in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York, Judge Woodruff said : “ The principle on which' foreign judgments receive any recognition from our courts is one. of comity. It does not require, but rather forbids it; where such a recognition works a direct violation of the policy of our laws, and does violence to what we deem the rights of our citizens.” And he declined- to maintain an action against a citizen of the United States (whose daughter had been married in France to a French citizen) upon a decree of a French court requiring the defendant, then resident in France and duly served with process there, to pay an annuity to his son-in-law. 10 Blatchford, 436, 441.
Mr. Justice Story and- Chancellor Kent, as appears by the passages above quoted from their commentaíies, .concurred in
The word “ mistake ” was evidently used by Story and Kent, in this connection, not in its wider meaning of error in judgment, whether upon the law or upon the facts; but in the stricter sense of misapprehension or oversight, and as equivalent to what, in Burnham v. Webster, before cited, Mr. Justice Woodbury spoke of as “some objection to the judgment’s reaching- the merits, and tending to prove that they had not been acted on; ” “ some accident or mistake,” or “ that the court did not decide at all on the merits.” 1 Woodb. & Min. 180.
The suggestion that a foreign judgment might be impeached for error in law of the country in which it was rendered is hardly consistent with the statement of Chief Justice Marshall, when, speaking of the disposition of this court to adopt the construction given to the laws of a State by its own courts, he said: “ This course is founded on the principle, supposed to be-universally recognized, that the judicial department of every government, where such department exists, is the appropriate organ for construing the legislative acts of that government. Thus, no court in the universe, which professed to be governed by principle, would, we presume, undertake to say, that the courts of Great Britain, or of France, or of any other nation, had misunderstood their own statutes, and therefore erect itself into а tribunal which should correct such misunderstanding. We receive the construction given by the courts of the nation as the true sense of the law, and feel ourselves no more at liberty to depart from that construction, than to depart from the words of the statute.”
Elmendorf
v. Taylor, (1825)
In recent times, foreign judgments rendered within- the do
The result of the modern decisions in England, after much diversity, not to say vacillation of opinion, does not greatly differ (so far as concerns the aspects in which the English courts have been called upon to consider the subject) from the conclusions of Chancellor Kent and of Justices Story and Woodbury.
At one time, it Avas held that, in an action brought in England upon a judgment obtained by the plaintiff in a foreign country, the judgment must be assumed to be according to the law of that country, unless the contrary was clearly proved — manifestly implying that proof on that point was competent. Becquet v. McCarthy, (1831) 2 B. & Ad. 951, 957; Alivon v. Furnival, (1834) 1 Cr., M. & R. 277, 293; S. C. 4 Tyrwh. 751, 768.
Lord Brougham, in the House of Lords, as well as Chief Justice Tindal and Chief Justice Wilde (afterwards Lord Chancellor Truro) and their associates, in the Common Bench, -considered it to be well settled that an Irish or Colonial judgment, or a foreign judgment, was not, like a judgment of a domestic court of record, conclusive evidence, but only, like a
On the other hand, Vice Chancellor Shadwell, upon an imperfect review of the early cases, expressed the opinion that a foreign judgment was conclusive. Martin v. Nicolls, (1830) 3 Sim. 458.
Like opinions were expressed by Lord Denman, speaking for the Court of Queen’s Bench, and by Yice Chancellor Wig-ram, in cases of Irish or Colonial judgments, which were subject to direct appellate review in England. Ferguson v. Mahon, (1839) 11 Ad. & El. 179, 183; S. C. 3 Per. & Dav. 143, 146; Henderson v. Henderson, (1844) 6 Q. B. 288, 298, 299; Henderson v. Henderson, (1843) 3 Hare, 100, 118.
. In Bank of Australasia v. Nias, (1851) in an action upon an Australian judgment, pleas that the original promises were not made, and that those promises, if made, were obtained by fraud, were held bad on demurrer. Lord Campbell, in delivering judgment, referred to Story on the Conflict of Laws, and adopted substantially his course of reasoning in § 607, above quoted, with regard to foreign judgments. But he distinctly put the decision upon the ground that the defendant might have appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and thus have procured a review of the colonial judgment. And he took 1 the precaution to say: “How far it would be permitted to a defendant to impeach the competency, or the integrity, of a foreign court from which there was no appeal, it is unnecessary here 'to inquire.” 16 Q. B. 717, 734-737.
The English courts, however, have sinee treated that decision as establishing that a judgment of any competent foreign court could not, in an action upon it, be questioned, either because that court had mistaken its own law, or because it had come to an erroneous conclusion upon the facts.
De Cosse Brissac
v.
Rathbone,
(1861) 6 H.
&
N. 301;
Scott
v.
Pilking
In view of the recent decisions in England, it is somewhat remarkable that, by the Indian Code of Civil Procedure of 1877, “ no foreign judgment ” (which is defined as a judgment of “a civil tribunal beyond the limits of British India, and not having authority in British India, nor established by the Governor General in Council ”) “ shall operate as a bar to a suit in British India,” “ if it appears on the face of the proceeding to be founded .on an incorrect view of international law,” or “ if it is, in the opinion of the court' before which it is produced, contrary to natural justice.” Piggott on Foreign Judgments, (2d ed.) 380, 381.
It was formerly understood in England that a foreign judgment was not conclusive, if it appeared upon its face to be founded on a mistake or disregard.of English law. Arnott v. Redfern, (1825-6) 2 Car. & P. 88, and 3 Bing. 353; S. C. 11 J. B. Moore, 209; Novelli v. Rossi, (1831) 2 B. & Ad. 757; 3 Burge on Colonial and Foreign Laws, 1065; 2 Smith’s Lead. Cas. (2d ed.) 448 ; Reimers v. Druce, (1856) 23 Beavan, 145.
In
Simpson
v.
Fogo,
(1860) 1 Johns.
&
Hem. 18, and (1862) 1 Hem.
&
Mil. 195, Vice-Chancellor Wood (afterwards Lord Hatherley) refused to give effect to a judgment
in personam
of a court in Louisiana, which had declined to recognize the title of a mortgagee of an English ship under the English law. In delivering judgment upon demurrer, he said:
“
The State of Louisiana may deal as it pleases with foreign law; but if it asks courts of this country to respect its law, it must be on a footing of paying a like respect to ours. Any comity between the courts of two nations holding such
In
Scott
v.
Pilkington,
(1862) Chief Justice Cockburn treated it as an open quеstion whether a judgment recovered in New York for a debt could be impeached on the ground that the record showed that the foreign court ought to .have decided the case according to English law, and had either disregarded the comity of nations by refusing to apply the English law, or erred in its view of English law. 2B. & S. 11, 42. In
Castrique
v.
Imrie,
(1870) the French judgment which was adjudged not to be impeachable for error in law, French or English, was, as the House of Lords construed it, a judgment
in rem,
und9r which the ship to which the plaintiff in England claimed title had been sold. L. R. 4 H. L. 414. In
Godard
v.
Gray,
(1870) shortly afterwards, in which the Court of Queen’s Bench held that a judgment
in personam,
of a French court could not be impeached because it had put
The result of the English decisions, therefore, would seem to be that a foreign judgment in personam may be impeached for a manifest and wilful disregard of the law of England.
Lord Abinger, Baron Parke and Baron Alderson were wont to say that the judgment of a foreign court of competent jurisdiction for a sum certain created a duty or legal obligation to pay that sum; or, in Baron Parke’s words, that the principle on which the judgments of foreign and colonial courts are supported and enforced was, “ that where a court of competent jurisdiction has adjudicated a certain sum to be due from one person to another, a legal obligation arises to pay that sum, on which an action of debt to enforce the judgment may be maintained.” Russell v. Smyth, (1842) 9 M. & W. 810, 818, 819; Williams v. Jones, (1845) 13 M. & W. 628, 633, 634.
But this was said in explaining why, by the technical rules of pleading, an action of assumpsit, or of debt, would lie upon a foreign judgment; and had no reference to the question how far such a judgment was conclusive of the matter adjudged. At common law, an action of debt would lie on a debt appearing by a record, or by any other specialty, such as a contract under seal; and would also lie for a definite sum of monqy due by simple contract. Assumpsit would not lié upon a record or other specialty; but would lie upon any other contract, whether expressed by the party, or implied by law. In an action upon a record, or upon- a contract under seal, a lawful consideration was- conclusively presumed to exist, and could not be denied-;
Mr. Justice. Blackburn, indeed, in determining how far a foreign judgment could be impeached, either for error in law, ,or for want of jurisdiction, expressed the opinion that the effect of such a judgment did not depend upon wha,t he termed “ that which is loosely called ‘ comity,’ ” but upon the saying of Baron.Parke, above quoted ; and consequently “ that anything which negatives the existence of that legal obligation, or excuses the defendant from the performance of it, must form a good defence to the action.” Godard v. Gray, (1870) L. R. 6 Q. B. 139, 148, 149; Schibsby v. Westenholz, (1870) L. R. 6 Q. B. 155, 159. And his example has been followed by some other English judges. Fry, J., in Rousillon v. Rousillon, (1880) 14 Ch. D. 351, 370; North, J., in Nouvion v. Freeman, (1887) 35 Ch. D. 704, 714, 715; Cotton and Lindley, B. JJ., in Nouvion v. Freeman, (1887) 37 Ch. D. 244, 250, 256.
In Russell v. Smyth, above cited, Baron Parke took the precaution of adding, “ Nor need we say how far the judgment of a court ■ of competent jurisdiction, in the absence of fraud, is conclusive upon the parties.” 9 M. & W. 819. He could hardly have contemplated erecting a rule of local procedure into a canon of private internationl law, and a substitute for “ the comity of nations,” on which, in an earlier case, he hail himself relied as the ground for enforcing in England a right created by a law of a foreign country. Alivon v. Furnival, 1 Cr., M. & R. 277, 296; S. C. 4 Tyrwh. 751, 771.
In
Abouloff
v.
Oppenheimer,
(1882) Lord Coleridge and Lord Justice Brett carefully avoided adopting the theory of a legal obligation to pay a foreign judgment as the test in determining how fár such a judgment might be impeached. 10 Q. B. D. 295, 300, 305. In
Hawhsford
v.
Giffard,
(1886) in the Privy Council, on appeal from the Eoyal Court of Jersey, Lord Herschell said: “This action is brought upon an English judgment, which, until a judgment was obtained in Jersey, was in
In view of all the authorities upon the subject, and of the trend of judicial opinion in this country and in England, following the lead of Kent and Story, we are satisfied that, where there has been opportunity for a full and fair trial abroad before a court of competent jurisdiction, conducting the trial upon regular proceedings, after due citation or voluntary appearance of the defendant, and under a system of jurisprudence likely to secure an impartial administration of justice between' the citizens of its own country and those, of other countries, and there is nothing to show either prejudice in the court, or in the system of laws under which it was sitting, or fraud in procuring the judgment, or any other special reason the comity of this nation should not allow it full effect,
But they have sought to impeach that judgment upon several other grounds, which require separate consideration.
It is objected that the appearance and litigation of the defendants in thе French tribunals were not voluntary, but by legal compulsion, and therefore that the French courts never acquired such jurisdiction over the defendants, that they should be held bound by the judgment.
Upon the question what should be considered such a voluntary appearance, as to amount to a submission to the. jurisdiction of a foreign court, there has been some difference of opinion in England.
• In
General Steam Navigation Co.
v. Guillou, (1843) in an action at law to recover damages to the plaintiff’s ship by a collision with the defendant’s ship through the negligence of the master and crew of the latter, the defendant pleaded a judgment by which a French court, in a suit brought by him, and after the plaintiffs had been cited, had appeared, and had asserted fault on this defendant’s part, had adjudged that it was the ship of these plaintiffs, and not that of this defendant, which was in fault. It was not shown or suggested that the ship of these plaintiffs was in the custody or possession of the French court. Yet Baron Parke, delivering a considered judgment of the Court of Exchequer, (Lord Abinger and Barons Alderson and Bolfe concurring,) expressed a decided opinion that the pleas were bad in substance, for these reasons: “ They do not state that the plaintiffs were French subjects, or resident, or even present in France when the suit began, so as to be bound by reason of allegiance, or domicil, or temporary presence, by a decision of a French court; and they did not select the tribunal and sue as plaintiffs; in any of which cases the determination might, have possibly bound them. They were mere strangers, who put forward the negligence
But it is now settled in England that, while an appearance by the defendant in a court of a foreign country, for the purpose of protecting his property already in the possession of that court, may not be deemed a voluntary appearance, yet an appearance solely for the purpose of protecting other property in that country from seizure is considered as a voluntary appearance. De Cosse Brissac v. Rathbone, (1860) 6 H. & N. 301; S. C. 20 Law Journal (N. S.) Exch. 238; Schibsby v. Westenholz, (1870) L. R. 6 Q. B. 155, 162; Voinet v. Barrett, (1885) 1 Cab. & El. 554; S. C. G. 54 Law Journal (N. S.) Q. B. 521, and 55 Law Journal (N. S.) Q. B. 39.
- The present case is not one of a person travelling through or casually found in a -foreign country. The defendants, although they were not citizens or residents of France, but were citizens and residents of the State of New York, and their principal place of business was in the city of New York, yet had a storehouse and an agent in Paris, and were accustomed to purchase large quantities of goods there, although they did not make sales in France. Under such circumstances, evidence that their sole object in appearing and carrying on the litigation in the French courts was to prevent property, in their storehouse at Paris, -belonging -to them, and within the jurisdiction, but not in the custody, of those courts, from being taken in satisfaction of any judgment that might be recovered against them, would not, according to our law, show that those courts did not acquire jurisdiction of the persons of the defendants.
It is next objected that in those courts one of the plaintiffs was permitted to testify not under oath, and was not subjected to cross-examination by the opposite party, and that the defendants were, therefore, deprived of safeguards which are by our law considered essential to secure honesty and to detect fraud in a witness ; and also that documents and papers were admitted in evidence, with which the defendants had no con
. It is also contended that a part of the plaintiffs’ claim is affected by one of the contracts between the parties having been made in violation of the revenue laws of the United States, requiring goods to be invoiced at their actual market value. Eev. Stat. § 2854. It may be assumed that, as the courts of a country will not enforce contracts made abroad in evasion or fraud of its own laws, so they will not enforce a foreign judgment upon such a contract.
Armstrong
v. Toler,
It must, however, always be kept.in mind that it is the paramount duty of the court, before which any suit is brought, to see to it that the parties have had a fair and impartial trial, before a final decision is rendered against either party.
When an actipn is brought in a court of this country, by a citizen of a foreign country against one of our own citizens, to recover a sum of money adjudged by a court of that country to be due from the defendant to the plaintiff, and the. foreign judgment appears to have been rendered by a competent court; having jurisdiction of the cause and of the parties, and upon due allegations and proofs, and opportunity to defend against’ them,- and its-proceedings are according to the course of a civilized jurisprudence, and are stated in a clear and formal
. -There is no doubt that both in this country, as appears by .the authorities already cited, and. in England, a foreign judgment may be impeached for fraud.
-Shortly before the Declaration of Independence, the House of Lords, upon the trial of the Duchess of Kingston for bigamy, put to the judges the question whether — assuming a sentence of the ecclesiastical court against a marriage, in a suit for jactitation of marriage, to be conclusive evidence so as to prevent..the counsel for the Crown from proving the marriage upon an indictment for polygamy ■— “ the counsel for the. Crown may be admitted to avoid the effect of such sentence, by proving the same to have been obtained by fraud or collusion.” Chief Justice De Grey, delivering the opinion of the judges, which was adopted by the House of Lords, answering this question in the affirmative, said: “ But if it was a direct and decisive sentence upon the point, and, as it stands, .to be admitted as conclusive evidence upon .the court, and not to be impeached from within; yet, like all other acts of the highest judicial authority, it is impeachable from without; although it is not permitted to show that the court was mistaken, it may be shown that they were misled. Fraud is an intrinsic collateral act; which vitiates the most solemn proceedings of courts of justice. Lord Coke says, it avoids all judicial acts, ecclesiastical .or temporal.” 20 Howell’s State Trials, 537, 543, note; S. C. in 2 Smith’s Lead. Cas.
All the subsequent English authorities concur in holding that any foreign judgment, whether
in rem
or
in
personam,. may be impeached upon the ground that it was fraudulently obtained.
White
v.
Hall,
(1806) 12 Ves. 321, 324;
Bowles
v.
Orr,
(1835) 1 Yo. & Col. Exch. 464, 473;
Price
v.
Dewhurst,
(1837) 8 Sim. 279, 302-305;
Don
v.
Lippmann,
(1837) 5 Cl. &
Under what circumstances this may be done does not appear to have ever been the subject of judicial investigation in this country.
It has often, indeed, been declared by this court that the fraud which entitles a party to impeach the judgment of one of our own tribunals must be fraud extrinsic to the matter tried in the cause, and not merely consist in false and fraudulent documents or testimony submitted to that tribunal, and the truth of which was contested before it and passed upon by it.
United States
v.
Throckmorton,
But it is now established in England, by well considered and strongly reasoned decisions of the Court of Appeal, that foreign judgments may be impeached, if procured by false and fraudulent representations and testimony of the plaintiff, even if the same question of fraud was presented to and decided by the foreign court.
In
Abouloff
v.
Oppenheimer,
(1882) the plaintiff had recovered a judgment at Tiflis in Bussia, ordering the defendants to return certain goods or to pay their value. The defendants appealed to a highеr Bussian court, which confirmed the judgment, and ordered the defendants to pay, besides the sum awarded below, an additional sum for costs and expenses. In an action in .the English High Court of
The same view was affirmed and acted on in the same court by Lords Justices Lindley and Bowen in Vadala v. Lawes, (1890) 25 Q. B. D. 310, 317-320, and by Lord Esher and. Lord Justice Lopes in Crozat v. Brogden, (1894) 2 Q. B. 30, 34, 35.
In the case at bar, the defendants offered to prove, in much detail, that the plaintiffs presented to the French court of first instance and to the arbitrator appointed by that court, and upon .whose report its judgment was largely based, false and fraudulent statements and accounts against the defendants, by which the arbitrator and the French' courts were, deceived and misled, and their judgments were based upon such false and fraudulent statements and accounts. This offer, if satisfactorily proved, would, according to the decisions of the English Court of Appeal in
Abouloff
v.
Oppenheimer, Vadala
v.
Lawes,
and
Vrozat
v.
Brogden,
above cited,
But whether those decisions can be followed in regard to foreign judgments, consistently with our own decisions as to impeaching domestic judgments for fraud, it is unnecessary in this case to determine, because .there is a distinct and independent ground upon which we are satisfied that the comity of our nation does not require us to give conclusive effect to the judgments of the courts of France; and that ground is, the want of reciprocity, on the part of France, as to the effect to be given to the judgments of this and other foreign countries.
In France, the Boyal Ordinance of June 15, 1629, art. 121, provided as follows: “Judgments rendered, contracts or obligations recognized, in foreign kingdoms and sovereignties, for any cause whatever, shall have no lien or execution in our kingdom. Thus the contracts shall stand for simple promises; and, notwithstanding the judgments, our subjects against whom.they have been rendered may contest■ their rights anew before our judges.” Touillier, Droit Civil, lib. 3, tit. 3, c. 6, sect. 3, no. 11.
By the .French Code of Civil Procedure, art. 546, “ Judgments rendered by foreign tribunals, and acts acknowledged before foreign officers, shall not be capable of execution in France, except in the manner and in the cases provided by articles 2*123 and 2128 of the Civil Code,” which are as follows: By article 2123, “ A lien cannot . arise from judgments rendered in a foreign country, except so far as they have been declared executory by a French tribunal; without prejudice to provisions to the contrary whiсh may exist in public laws, and treaties.” By article 2128, “ Contracts entered into in a foreign country cannot give a lien upon property in France, if there are no provisions contrary to this principle in public laws or in treaties.” Touillier, ub. sup. no. 84.
The defendants, in their answer, cited the above provisions of the statutes of France, and alleged, and at the trial offered to prove, that', by the construction given to
In Odwin v. Forbes, (1817) President Henry, in the Court of Denierara, which was governed by the Dutch law, and was, as he remarked, “ a tribunal foreign to and independent of that of England,” sustained a plea of an English certificate in bankruptcy, upon these grounds: “ It is a principle of their law, and laid' down. particularly in the ordinances of Amsterdam,” “ that the same law shall be exercised towards foreigners in Amsterdam as is exercised with respect to citizen’s of that State in other countries; and upon this principle of reciprocity, which is not confined to the city of Amsterdam, but pervades the Dutch laws, they have always given effect to the laws of that country which has exercised the same comity and indulgence in admitting theirs.” “ That the Dutch bankrupt laws proceed on the same principles as those of the English;’ that the English tribunals give effect to the Dutch bankrupt laws ; and that, on the principle of reciprocity and mutual comity, the Dutch tribunals, according to. their own ordinances, are bound to give effect to the.English bankrupt laws when duly proved, unless there is any express law or ordinance prohibiting their admission.” And his judgment was affirmed in the Privy Council on Appeal. Case of Odwin v. Forbes, pp. 89, 159-161, 173-176; S. C. (1818) Buck Bankr. Cas. 57, 64,
It was that statement, which appears to have called forth the observations of Mr. Justice Story, already cited: “Holland seems at all times, upon the general principle of reciprocity, to have given great weight to foreign judgments, and in many cases, if not in all cases, to have given to them a weight equal to that given to domestic judgments, wherever the like rule of reciprocity with regard to Dutch judgments has been adopted by the foreign country whose judgment is brought under review. This is certainly a very reasonable rule, and may perhaps hereafter work itself firmly into the structure of international jurisprudence.” Story’s Conflict of Laws, § 618. •
This rule, though never either affirmed or denied by express adjudication in England or America, has been indicated, more or less distinctly, in several of the authorities already cited.
Lord Hardwicke threw out a suggestion that the credit to be given by one court to the judgment of a foreign court
Lord Eldon, after saying thatnatural law ” (evidently intending the law of nations) “ requires the courts of this country to give credit to those of another for the inclination and power to do justice,” added that “ if it appears in evidence, that persons suing under similar circumstances neither had met, nor could meet, with justice, that fact cannot be immaterial as an answer to the presumption.” Wright v. Simpson, 6 Ves. 714, 730.
Lord Brougham, presiding as Lord Chancellor in the House of Lords, said: “ The law in the course of procedure abroad sometimes differs so mainly from ours in the principles upon which it is bottomed, that it would seem a strong thing to hold that our courts were bound conclusively to give execution to the sentence of ■ foreign courts, when, for aught we know, there is not any one of those things which are reckoned the elements or the corner stones of the due administration of justice, present to the procedure in these foreign courts.” Houlditch v. Donegal, 8 Bligh N. R. 301, 338.
Chief Justice Smith, of New Hampshire, in giving reasons why foreign judgments or decrees, founded on the municipal laws of the State in which they are. pronounced, are not conclusive evidence of debt, but prima faeie evidence only, said: “These laws and regulations may be unjust, partial to citizens, and against forеigners; they may operate injustice to our citizens, whom we are bound to protect; they may be, and the decisions of courts founded on them, just cause of complaint against the supreme power of the State where rendered. To adopt them is not merely saying .that the courts have decided correctly on the law, but it is approbating the law itself-.” Bryant v. Ela, Smith. (N. H.) 396, 404.
Mr. Justice Story said: “ If a civilized natioh seeks to have the sentences of its own courts held of any validity elsewhere, they ought to have a just regard to the rights and usages of other civilized nations, and the principles of public and national law in the administration of justice.” Bradstreet v. Neptune Ins. Vo., 3 Sumner, 600, 608.
Mr. Justice Cooley said, “True comity is equality; we should demand nothing more, and concede nothing less.” McEwan v. Zimmer, 38 Michigan, 765, 769.
Mr. Wheaton said: “ There is no obligation, recognized by legislators, public authorities, and publicists, to regard foreign laws; but their application is admitted only from considerations of utility and the mutual convenience of States — ex comitate, ob reciprocam utilitatem.” “The general comity, utility and convenience of nations have, however, established a usage among most civilized States, by which the final judgments of foreign courts of competent jurisdiction are reciprocally carried into execution.” Wheaton’s International Law, (8th ed.) §§ 79, 147.
Since Story, Kent and Wheaton wrote their commentaries, many books and essays have been published upon the subject of the effect to be allowed by the courts of'one country to the judgments of another, with references to the statutes and decisions in various countries. Among the principal ones are Foelix, Droit International Privé, (4th ed. by Demangeat, 1866) lib. 2, tits. 7, 8; Moreau, Effets Internationaux des Jugements (1884); Piggott, on Foreign Judgments (2d ed. 1884); Constant, de l’Exécution des Jugements Etrangers (2d ed. 1890), giving the text of the articles of most of the modern codes upon the subject, and of French treaties with Italian, German and Swiss States; and numerous papers in Clunet’s Journal de Droit International Privé, established in 1874, and continued to the present time. For the reasons stated at the outset of this opinion, we have not thought it important to state the conflicting theories of continental commenta
By the law of France, settled by a series of uniform decis-' ions of the Court of Cassation, the highest judicial tribunal, for more than half, a century,' no foreign judgment can be rendered executory in France-without a review of the judgment cm fond — to the bottom, including" the whole merits of the cause of action on which the judgment rests. Pardessus, Droit Commercial, § .1488; Bard,' Précis de Droit International, (1883) nos. 234-239; Story’s Conflict of Laws, §§ 615-617; Piggott, 452; Westlake on Private International Law, (3d ed. 1890) 350.
A leading case was- decided by the Court of Cassation on April 19, 1819, and was as follows: A contract of partnership wras made between Holker, a French merchant, and Parker, a citizen of the United States. Afterwards, and before the partnership accounts were settled, Parker came to France, and Holker sued him in the Tribunal of Commerce of Paris. Parker excepted, on the ground that he was a foreigner, not domiciled in France; and obtained a judgment, affirmed on appeal, remitting the matter’ to the American courts —
obtint son renvoi deva/nt les tribunaux Américains.
Holker then sued Parker in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts, and in 1814 obtained a judgment there, ordering Parker to pay him $529,949. (One branch of the controversy had been brought before this court in 1813.
Holker
v.
Parker,
Thex Court of Cassation has ever since constantly affirmed the same view. Moreau, no. 106, note, citing many decisions; Clunet, 1882, p. 166. In Clunet, 1894, p. -913, note, it is said to be “settled by judicial decisions — il est' de jurisprudence — that the French courts are bound', in the absence of special diplomatic treaties, to proceed to the revision on the whole merits — aufond — of foreign judgments, execution of which is demanded of them,” citing, among other cases, a decision of the Court of Cassation on February 2, 1892, by which it was expressly held to result from the articles of the Codes, above cited, “ that judgments rendered, in favor of a foreigner against a Frenchman, by a foreign court, are subject, when execution of them is demanded in France, to the revision of the French tribunals, which have the right and the duty to examine them, both as to the form, and as to the merits.” Sirey, 1892, 1, 201;
In Belgium, the Code of Civil Procedure of 1876 provides that if a treaty bn the basis of reciprocity be in existence between Belgium and the country in which the foreign judgment has been given, the examination of the judgment in the Belgian courts shall .bear only upon the questions whether it “ contains nothing contrary to public order, to the principles of the Belgian public order;” whether, by the law of the country in which it was rendered, it has the force of
res judicata;
whether the copy is duly authenticated; whether the
In Holland, the effect given to foreign judgments has always depended ..upon reciprocity, but whether by reason of Dutch ordinances only, or of general principles of jurisprudence, does not clearly appear. Odwin v. Forbes, and Henry on Foreign Law, above cited; Story’s Conflict of Laws,.§ 618; Foelix, no. 397, note; Clunet, 1879, p. 369; 1 Ferguson’s International Law, 85; Constant, 171; Moreau, no. 213.
In Denmark, the courts appear to require reciprocity to be shown before they will execute a foreign judgment. Foelix, nos. 328, 315; Clunet, 1891, p. 987; Westlake, ub. sup. In Norway, the courts reexamine the merits of all foreign judgments, even of those of Sweden. Foelix, no. 401; Piggott, 504, 505; Clunet, 1892, p. 296. In Sweden, the principle of reciprocity has prevailed from very ancient times; the courts give no effect to foreign judgments, unless upon that principle; and it is doubtful whether they will even then, unless reciprocity is secured by treaty with the country in which the judgment was rendered. Foelix, no. 400; Olivecrona, in Clunet, 1880, p. 83; Constant, 191; Moreau, no. 222; Piggott, 503; Westlake, ub. sup.
In Switzerland, by the Federal Constitution, civil judgments in one canton are executory throughout the Republic. As to foreign judgments, there is no federal law? each canton having its own law upon the subject. But in the German cantons, and in some of the other cantons, foreign judgments are executed according to the rule of reciprocity only. Constant, 193-204; Piggott, 505-516; Clunet, 1887, p. 762; Westlake,
ub. sup.
The law upon this subject has been clearly stated by Brocher, President of the Court of Cassation of Geneva, and professor of law in the university there. In his Nouveau
In Russia, by the Code of 1864, “ the judgments of foreign tribunals shall be rendered executory according to the rules established.by reciprocal treaties and conventions,” and, where no rules have been established by such treaties, are to be “ put in execution in the Empire, only after authorization granted by the courts of the Empire; ” and,
“
in deciding upon demands of this kind, the courts do not examine into the foundation of the dispute adjudged by the foreign tribunals, but decide only whether the judgment does not contain dispositions which are contrary to the public order, or which are not permitted by the laws of the Empire.” Constant, 183-185. Yet a chamber of the Senate of St. Petersburg, sitting as a Court of Cassation, and the highest judicial tribunal of the Empire in civil matters, has declined to execute a French judgment, upon the grounds that, by the' settled law of Russia, “ it is a principle in the Russian Empire that only the decisions of the authorities to whom jurisdiction has been delegated by the sovereign power have legal value by themselves and of full right;” and that “ in all questions of international law, reciprocity must be observed and maintained as a ftmdamental principle.”
Adam
v.
Schipoff,
Clunet, 1884, pp. 45, 46, 134. And Professor Englemann, of the Russian University of Dorpat, in an able essay, explaining that and other Russian decisions, takes the following view of' them: “ The execution of a treaty is not -the only proof of reciprocity.” “It is necessary to commit the ascertainment of the existence of reciprocity to the judicial tribunals, for the same reasons for which there is conferred upon them the right to settle all questions incident to the cause to be adjudged. The existence of reciprocity be
In Poland, the provisions of the Russian Code are in force; atid the Court of Appeal of Warsaw has decided that, where there is no treaty, the judgments of a foreign country cannot be executed, because, “in admitting a contrary conclusion, there would be impugned one of the cardinal principles of international relations, namely, the principle of reciprocity, according to which each State recognizes juridical rights and relations, originating or established in another country, only in the measure in which the latter, in its turn, does not disregard the rights and relations existing in the former.” Clunet, 1884, pp. 494, 495.
In Roumania, it is provided by code that “judicial decisions rendered in foreign countries cannot be exécuted in Roumania, except in the same manner in which Roumanian judgments are executed in the country in question,, and provided they are ■ declared executory .by competent Roumanian judges; ” and this article seems to be held to require, legislative reciprocity.
In Bulgaria, by a resolution of the Supreme Court, in 1881, “ the Bulgarian judges should, as a general rule, abstain from entering upon the merits of the foreign judgment; they ought only to inquire whether the judgment submitted to them does not contain dispositions contrary to the public order, and to the Bulgarian laws.” Constant, 129, 130; Clunet, 1886, p. 570. This resolution closely follows the terms of the Russian Code, which, as has been seen, has not precluded applying the principle of reciprocity.
In Austria, the rule of reciprocity does not rest upon any treaty or legislative enactment, but has been long established, by imperial decrees and judicial decisions, upon general .principles of jurisprudence. Foelix, no. 331; Constant, 100-108; Moreau, no. 185; Weiss, Traité de Droit International, (1886) 980; Clunet, 1891, p, 1003; 1894, p. 908; Piggott, 434. In Hungary, the same principles were always followed as in Austria; and reciprocity has been made a condition by a law of 1880. Constant, 109; Moreau, no. 186 & note; Piggott, 436; Weiss, ub. sup.
In Italy before it was united into one kingdom, each State had its own rules. In Tuscany, and in Modena, in the absence of ‘ treaty, the whole merits were reviewed. In Parma, as by the French Ordinance of 1629, the foreign judgment was subject to fundamental revision,- if against a subject of Parma. In Naples, the code and the decisions followed those of France. In Sardinia, the written laws required above all the condition of reciprocity, and, if that condition was not fulfilled, the foreign judgment was reexaminable in all respects. Fiore, Effetti Internazionali delle Sentenze, (1875) 40-44; Moreau, no. 204. In the Papal States, by a decree of the Pope in 1820, “ the exequatur shall not be granted, except so far as the judgments rendered in the States of his Holiness shall enjoy the same favor in the foreign countries; this reciprocity is presumed, if there is no particular reason to doubt it.” Touillier, Droit Civil, lib. 3, tit. 3, c. 6; sec. 3, no. 93. And see Foelix, no. 343; Westlake,
ub. sup.
In the Kingdom of Italy,
In the principality of Monaco, foreign judgments are not executory, except by virtue of a special ordinance of the Prince, upon a report of the Advocate General. Constant, 169; Piggott, 488.
In Spain, formerly, foreign judgments do not appear to have been executed at all.. Foelix, no. 398; Moreau, no. 197; Silvela, in Clunet, 1881, p. 20. But by the Code of 1855, revised in 1881 without change in this respect, “judgments pronounced in foreign countries shall have in Spain the force that the respective treaties give them; if there are no special treaties with the nation in which they have been rendered, they shall
■ In Portugal, foreign judgments, whether against a Portuguese or against a foreigner, are held to be reviewable upon the merits before granting execution thereof. Foelix, no. 399; Clunet, 1875, pp. 54, 448; Moreau, no. 217; Constant, 176-180; Westlake, ub. sup.
In Greece, by the provisions of -the Code of 1834, foreign judgments, both parties to which are foreigners, are enforced without examination of their merits ;• but if one of the parties •is a Greek, they are not enforced if found contradictory to the facts proved, or if they are contrary to the prohibitive laws of Greece. Foelix, no. 396; Constant, 151, 152; Moreau, no. 202; Saripolos, in Clunet, 1880, p. 173; Piggott, 475.
In Egypt, under the influence of European jurisprudence, the code of civil procedure has made' reciprocity a condition upon which foreign judgments are executed. Constant, 136; Clunet, 1887, pp. 98, 228; 1889, p. 322.
. In Cuba and in Porto Eico, the codes of civil procedure are based upon the Spanish code of 1855. Piggott, 435, 503. In H'ayti, the code rebnacts the provisions of the French code. Constant, 153 ; Moreau, no. 203 ; Piggott, 460.
In Mexico, the system of reciprocity has been adopted, by the Code of 1884, as the governing principle. Constant, 168; Clunet, 1891, p. 290.
The rule of reciprocity likewise appears to have generally prevailed in South America. In Peru, foreign judgments do not appear to be executed without examining the merits, unless when reciprocity is secured by treaty. Clunet, 1879, pp. 266, 267; Piggott, 548. In Chili, there appears to have been no legislation upon the subject; but, according to a decision of the Supreme Court of Santiago in 1886, /‘the Chilian tribunals should not award an exequatur, except 'upon .decisions in correct form, and also reserving the general principle of reciprocity.” Clunet, 1889, p. 135; Constant, 131,
It appears, therefore, that there is hardly a civilized nation on either continent, which, by its general law, allows conclusive effect to an executory foreign judgment for.the recovery of money. In France, and.in a few smaller States — Norway, Portugal, Greece, Monaco,, and Hayti — the merits of the. controversy are reviewed, as of course, allowing to the foreign judgment, at the most, no more effect than of being prima facie evidence of the justice of the claim. In the great majority of the countries on the continent of Europe — in Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, in many cantons of Switzerland, in Russia and Poland, in Roumania, in Austria and Hungary, (perhaps in Italy,) and in Spain — as well as in Egypt, in Mexico, and in a great part of South America, the judgment rendered in a foreign country is allowed the same effect only as the courts of that country allow to the judgments of the country in which the judgment in question is sought to be executed.
The prediction of Mr. .Justice Story (in § 618 of his Commentaries on the Conflict of Laws, already cited,) has thus been fulfilled, and the rule of reciprocity has worked itself firmly into the structure of international jurisprudence.
The reasonable, if not the necessary, conclusion appears to us to be that judgments rendered in France, or in any other foreign country, by the laws of which our own judgments are reviewable upon the merits, are not entitled to full credit and conclusive effect when sued upon in this country, but are prima facie evidence only of the justice of the plaintiffs’ claim.
By our law, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, a foreign judgment was considered as prima facie evidence, and not conclusive. There is no statute of the United States, and no treaty of the United States with France, or with any other nation, which has changed that law, or has made any provision upon the subject. It is not to be supposed that, if any statute or treaty had been or should be made, it would recognize as conclusive the judgments of any country, which did not give like effect to our own judgments. In the absence of statute or treaty, it appears to us equally unwarrantable to assume that the comity of the United States requires anything more.
If we should hold this judgment to be conclusive, we should allow it an effect to which, supposing the defendants’ offers to be sustained by actual proof, it would, in the absence of a special treaty,- be entitled in hardly any other country in Christendom, except the country in which it was rendered. If the judgment had been rendered in this country, or in any other outside of the jurisdiction of France, the French courts would not have executed or enforced it, except after examining into its merits. The very judgment now sued on would be held inconclusive in almost any other country than France. In England, and in the Colonies subject to the law of England, the fraud alleged in its. procurement would be a sufficient ground for disregarding it. In the courts of nearly every other nation, it would be subject to reexamination, either merely because it was a foreign judgment, or because judgments of that nation would be reexam in able in the courts of France.
Judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded to the Circuit Court with directions to set aside the verdict and to order a new trial.
For the same reasons, in the suit in equity between these parties, the foreign judgment is not a bar, and, therefore, the
Decree dismissing the bill is reversed, the plea adjudged bad, cmd the cause remanded to the Circuit Court for'further, proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
Plaintiffs .brought their action on a judgment recovered by them against the defendants in the courts of France, which courts had jurisdiction over person and subject-matter, and in respect of which judgment no fraud was alleged, except in particulars contested in and considered by the French courts. The. question is whether under these circumstances, and in the absence of a treaty or act of Congress; the judgment is reSxaminable upon the merits. This question I regard as one to be.determined by the ordinary and settled rule in respect of allowing a party, who has had an opportunity to prove his case in a competent court, to retry it on the merits, and it seems to me that the doctrine of res judicata applicable to domestic judgments should be applied to foreign judgments as well, and rests on. the same general ground of public policy that there should be an end of litigation.
This application of the doctrine is in accordance with 6ur. own jurisprudence, and it is not necessary that we should hold it to be required by some rule of international law. The fundamental principle concerning judgments is that disputes are finally determined by them, and lam unable to perceive why a judgment in personam which is not open to question on the ground of want of jurisdiction, either intrinsically or over the parties, or of fraud, or on any other recognized ground of impeachment, should not be held inter partes, though recovered abroad, conclusive on the merits,
The principle that requires litigation to be treated as terminated by final judgment properly rendered, is as applicable to a judgment proceeded oh in such an action, as to any other, and forbids the. allowance to the judgment debtor of a retrial of the original cause of action, as of right, in disregard of the obligation to pay arising on the judgment and of the rights acquired by the judgment creditor thereby.
That any other conclusion is inadmissible is forcibly illustrated by the case in hand. Plaintiffs in error were trading copartners in Paris as well as in New York, and had a place of business in Paris at the time of these transactions and of the commencement of the suit against them in Prance. The subjects of the suit were commercial transactions, having their origin, and partly performed, in Prance under a contract there made, and alleged to be modified by the dealings of the parties there; and one of the claims against them was for goods sold to them there. They appeared generally in the case, without protest, and by counterclaims relating to the same general course of business, a part of them only connected with the claims against them, became actors in the suit and submitted to the courts their own claims for affirmative relief, as well as the claims against them. The courts were competent and they took the chances of a decision in their favor. As traders in Prance they were under the protection of its laws and were bound by its laws, its commercial usages and its rules of procedure. The fact that they were Americans and the opposite parties were citizens of Prance is immaterial, and there is no suggestion on the record that those courts proceeded on any other ground than that all litigants, whatever their nationality, were еntitled to equal justice therein. If plaintiffs in error had succeeded in their cross suit and recovered judgment against defendants in error, and had -sued them here on that judgment, defendants' in error would not have been permitted to say that the judgment in Prance was
The following view of the rule in England was expressed, by Lord Herschell in Nouvion v. Freeman, L. R. 15 App. Cas. 1, 9, quoted in the principal opinion: “ The principle upon which I think our enforcement of foreign judgments must proceed is this: that in a court of competent jurisdiction, where according to its established procedure the whole merits of the case were open, at all events, to the parties, however much they may have failed to take" advantage of them, or may have waived any of their rights, a final adjudication has been given that a debt or obligation exists which cannot thereafter in that court be disputed, and can only be questioned in an appeal to a higher tribunal. In such a case it may well be said that giving credit to the courts of another country we are prepared to take the fact that such adjudication has been made as establishing the existence of the debt or obligation.” But in that connection the observations made by Mr. Justice Blackburn in Godard v. Gray, L. R. 6 Q. B. 139, 148, and often referred to with approval, may usefully again be quoted:
“ It is not an admitted principle of the- law of nations that a state is bound to enforce within its territories the judgments of a foreign tribunal. Several of the continental nations (including France) do not enforce the judgments of other countries, unless where there are reciprocal- treaties to that effect. But in England and in those states which are governed by the common law, such judgments are enforced, not by virtue of any treaty, nor'by virtue of any statute, but upon a principle very well stated by Parke, B., in Williams v. Jones, 13 M. & W. at p. 633 : ‘ Where a court of competent jurisdiction had adjudicated a certain sum to be due from one person to another, a legal obligation arises to pay that sum, on which an action of debt to enforce the judgment may be maintained. It is in this way that the judgments of foreign and colonial courts are supported and enforced.’ And taking this as the principle, it seems to follow that anything which negatives, the existence of that legal obligation, or excuses the defendant from the performance of it, must form -a good defence to the action. It must be open, therefore, to the defendant to show that the court which pronounced the judgment had not jurisdiction to pronounce it, either because they exceeded the jurisdiction •given to them by the foreign law, or because he, the defendant, was not subject to that jurisdiction; and so far the foreign judgment must be examinable. Probably the defendant may shew that the judgment was obtained by the fraud of the' plaintiff, for that would shew that the defendant was excused from the performance of an obligation thus obtained; and it may be that where the foreign court has knowingly and perversely disregarded the rights given to an English subject by English law, that forms a valid excuse for disregarding the obligation thus imposed on him; but we prefer to imitate the caution of the present Lord Chancellor in Castrique v. Imrie, L. R. 4 H. L. at p. 445, and to leave those questions to be decided when they arise, only observing in the present case, as in that -‘ the whole of the facts appear to have been inquired into by the French courts; judicially, honestly, and with the intention to arrive at the right conclusion, and having heard ' the facts as stated before them, they came to a conclusion which justified' them in France in deciding as they did decide.’ . -. . Indeed, it is difficult to understand how the common course of pleading is consistent with any notion that the judgment was only evidence. If that were so, every count on a foreign judgment must be demurrable. on. that ■ ground. The mode of pleading shews that the judgment was considered, not as merely prima facie evidence of that cause of action for which the judgment was given, but as in itself giving rise, at least prima facie, to a legal obligation to obey that judgment and pay the sum adjudged. This may seem a technical mode of dealing with the question; but in truth it goes to the root of the matter. For if the judgment were merely considered as evidence of the original cause of action, it must be open to meet it by any counter evidence negativing the existence of that original cause of action. If, on the other hand; there is a prima facie obligation to obey the judgment of a tribunal having jurisdiction over the party and the cause, and to pay the sum decreed, the question would be, whether it was open to the unsuccessful party to try the cause over again in a court, not sitting as a court of appeal from that which gave the judgment. It is quite clear that this could not be done where the action is brought, on the judgment of an English tribunal; and, on principle, it seems.the same rule should apply, where it is brought on that of a foreign tribunal.”
In any aspect, it is difficult to see why rights acquired under foreign judgments do not belong to the category of private rights acquired under foreign laws. Now the rule is universal in this country that private rights acquired under the laws of foreign states will be respected and enforced in our courts unless contrary to the policy or prejudicial'to the interests of the state where this is sought to be done; and although the source of this rule may have been the comity characterizing the intercourse between nations, it prevails to-day'by its own strength, and the right to the application of the law to which the particular transaction is subject is a juridical right.
And, without going into the refinements of the publicists on the subject, it appears to me that that law finds authoritative expression in the judgments of courts of competent jurisdiction over parties and subject-matter.
It is held by the majority of the court that defendants cannot be permitted to contest the validity and effect óf this judgment on the general ground that it was erroneous in law
I cannot yield my assent to the proposition that because by legislation and judicial decision in France that effect is not there given to judgments recovered in this country which, according to our jurisprudence, we think should" be.given to judgments wherever recovered, (subject, of course, to the recognized exceptions,) therefore we should pursue the same line of conduct'as respects the judgments of French tribunals. The application of the doctrine of res judicata does not rest in discretion ; and it is for the government, and not for its courts, to adopt the principle of retorsion, if deemed under any circumstances desirable or necessary.
As the court expressly abstains from deciding whether the judgment is impeachable on the ground of fraud, I refrain from any observations on that branch of the case.