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Is Now the Time to Take Your U.S. Judgment to China?
Just read a post over at the China Law Prof Blog on what Professor Clarke rightly calls “an interesting case in which a Chinese court (the Nanjing Intermediate-Level People’s Court) enforced a Singapore court judgment.”
Professor Clarke then goes on to explain how Chinese courts “may enforce foreign judgments that are not fundamentally offensive in some way under two circumstances: (1) there is a treaty with the foreign country calling for mutual enforcement of judgments; or (2) on the basis of reciprocity, which has been interpreted to mean that the foreign country has a practice of enforcing Chinese judgments, or at least has done so before.” This has been the law in China for quite some time.
Clarke then states that there is no Singapore-China treaty calling for mutual recognition and enforcement of judgments, which is my understanding as well. But — and this is the kicker — the Nanjing court nonetheless decided to recognize and enforce the Singapore judgment because in 2014 a Singapore court had enforced a Chinese judgment. And get this: the judgment the Chinese court enforced was a default judgment against a Chinese corporate defendant. I say “get this” because courts everywhere are far more reluctant to enforce default judgments (typically given out because the defendant failed to appear or defend) than to enforce a judgment on the merits of the case.
Professor Clarke does not know if this is the first foreign judgment Chinese courts have enforced on the basis of reciprocity and I too do not know whether that is the case. Professor Clarke does add though that he thinks “it’s fair to say that such cases are pretty thin on the ground.” To which I will add, yes that is for sure.
Now here’s the million (actually probably billions) dollar question this case raises: does this mean China will start enforcing U.S. judgments? I mean U.S. courts have enforced Chinese judgments (my law firm haas secured such an enforcement order) so does this mean Chinese courts might do so if the case is right? Professor Clarke has this to say on this question:
But if I were trying to enforce a US judgment in a Chinese court, I’d certainly bring it up. To the best of my knowledge, Chinese courts have not yet enforced a contested US money judgment. (I’m attaching those qualifications because they may, for example, have recognized a US divorce decree for some purpose.)
Just a few months ago, in Enforcing US Judgments in China. Not Yet, I said “no way”:
At least once a month, one of our China lawyers will get a call or an email from a U.S. lawyer seeking our help in taking a U.S. judgment (usually a default judgment) to China to enforce. The thinking of the U.S. lawyer is that all we need do is go to a China court and ask it to convert the U.S. judgment into a Chinese judgment and then send out the Chinese equivalent of a sheriff to the Chinese company and start seizing its assets until it pays.
As we have consistently written, nope, nope, nope.
I then went on to talk about how my firm’s China lawyers are often called upon to conduct research on this very issue (oftentimes for lawyers or companies wanting to prove to their insurance company or to a court that it would be futile for them to pursue enforcement of their United States judgment in China) and I pulled a large section from the latest of our memoranda on that topic, and I do so again below.
Article 282 of the PRC Civil Procedure Law, requires all of the following conditions be met for enforcement of a foreign judgment to be recognized in China:
The foreign judgment has taken legal effect in the jurisdiction in which it was rendered.
The country where the deciding court is located has a treaty with China or is a signatory to an international treaty to which China is also a signatory or there is reciprocity between the countries.
The foreign judgment does not violate any basic principles of Chinese law, national sovereignty, security, or social public interest.
Though China is a signatory to the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, it is not a signatory to any international treaty on the recognition and enforcement of foreign court judgments. There is no bilateral treaty between China and the U.S. on recognition and enforcement of foreign court judgments. There also is no bilateral treaty between the two countries on civil or commercial judicial assistance.
Even judgments from countries that have an enforcement treaty with China, are oftentimes not enforced in China. For example, China and Australia entered into an agreement on reciprocal encouragement and protection of investments in 1988 that mandates both countries promulgate laws recognizing and enforcing each other’s judgments. But in response to a 2007 request by the Guangdong Province High People’s Court for instructions regarding an application by an Australian plaintiff for recognition and enforcement of an Australian court judgment, the Supreme People’s Court of China (the “SPC”) rejected enforcement since there was no international treaty to which China was a signatory nor any treaty between China and Australia on mutual recognition and enforcement of court judgments, nor any reciprocity between the two countries, the application should be rejected.
Since China is not a signatory to any international treaty on recognition and enforcement of foreign court judgments nor is there any treaty between China and the U.S. regarding judgment enforcement, the only possible way to get a U.S. judgment enforced in China would be if there were reciprocity between the two countries, but there isn’t.
In considering the question of reciprocity, a Chinese court will consider whether there is any precedent indicating reciprocity. In other words, the court will seek to determine whether there are any prior cases where a U.S. court recognized or enforced a Chinese court’s decision. If there are no examples of a U.S. court having enforced a Chinese judgment, the Chinese court will almost certainly rule against enforcing the U.S. judgment because the reciprocity requirement will not have been met.
In 1994, the Dalian Intermediate People’s Court considered a Japanese party’s application to recognize and enforce a Japanese judgment and two rulings. The application was eventually referred to the SPC for guidance and the SPC held that given that there was no multilateral or bilateral treaty governing such matters between China and Japan and given that the two countries had not established reciprocity, the Japanese judgment would not be recognized or enforced by a Chinese court. This case confirms China requires factual reciprocity, not presumed reciprocity.
But are there any examples of a U.S. court enforcing a Chinese Judgment? On August 12, 2009, the United States District Court for the Central District of California issued a judgment enforcing a $6.5 million dollar Chinese judgment against an American corporate defendant under California’s version of the Uniform Foreign Money Judgments Recognition Act and in 2011, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s decision. The plaintiffs in that case were Hubei Gezhouba Sanlian Industrial Co. Ltd. and Hubei Pinghu Cruise Co. Ltd., two PRC companies located in Hubei Province. The plaintiffs won a judgment against Robinson Helicopter Company Inc., a California corporation, at the Higher People’s Court of Hubei Province. The United States District Court for the Central District of California held that the PRC judgment was final, conclusive and enforceable under PRC laws and the plaintiffs were therefore entitled to an issuance of a domestic judgment in the amount of the PRC judgment.
This was the first time a U.S. Court recognized and enforced a PRC judgment, but it does not necessarily mean a Chinese court will automatically invoke the principle of reciprocity and recognize and enforce a U.S. court judgment. First, the enforcing court in that case is in California (though it was federal court), and the laws usually differ from state to state in the U.S., so it’s uncertain whether a Chinese court will deem the U.S., as a country, to have established a reciprocal relationship with China. Second, since the enforcing court was a federal court, it’s also not clear whether a Chinese court will deem a state court’s judgment enforceable in China. Third, the enforcing court is not the U.S. Supreme Court, thus, a Chinese court may not deem it to amount to reciprocity at the highest judicial level between the two countries. Finally, that case involved a U.S. defendant who had previously argued that only China had jurisdiction over the case, so it hardly could be deemed unfair for a U.S. court to rule on enforcing the Chinese judgment.
Chinese courts tend to be more willing to recognize and enforce foreign divorce judgments involving Chinese citizens so they don’t have to initiate a separate divorce proceeding. However, since this is not a divorce case, it almost certainly is not relevant.
We have not been able to find a single instance where a Chinese court enforced a U.S. non-divorce judgment.
This memorandum does not address the possibility of your suing the Chinese company directly in China and there are times where doing so makes sense.
In conclusion, a U.S. court judgment against ______________ will almost certainly not be recognized or enforced in China. Unless ___________ has assets in the U.S. or in some country other than China that enforces US judgments, a US judgment will probably not be collectable against this company in any way.
I find it hard to believe that this decision regarding the Singapore judgment did not receive a thorough vetting from on high and maybe it does signal a change in enforcement of foreign judgments in China. I for one would love to test it out, but I would want to do it with the perfect case, or something close to it. The perfect case would be a Chinese defendant company that is a real bad hombre (sorry to use a Trump line, but I just cannot help it) who cheated someone in a commercial dispute and then got sued in a U.S. federal court and fought and lost on the merits. Ideally the judgment is for millions of dollars and the Chinese company has the wherewithal to pay it. I know it is asking too much but if the Chinese defendant appealed the lower court’s ruling and lost on appeal also, well that would be the icing on the cake.
Who’s in?
P.S. Many years ago, our firm was representing about 25 companies that were together owed maybe $20 million tied to a Russian vessel that had fled to North Korea to avoid being seized for the debt. I really really wanted to be able to claim title to being the American lawyer (maybe any lawyer) to successfully arrest a ship in North Korea and so I offered to take it on for what I saw as a ridiculously low flat fee but still could not get any (or at least enough) takers. I see some similarities in trying to enforce a U.S. judgment in China. But if anyone does try, please, please, please report your results to us.
We will be discussing the practical aspects of Chinese law and how it impacts business there. We will be telling you what works and what does not and what you as a businessperson can do to use the law to your advantage. Our aim is to assist businesses already in China or planning to go into China, not to break new ground in legal theory or policy.
Source: http://www.chinalawblog.com/2017/02/is-now-the-time-to-take-your-u-s-judgment-to-china.html
