The appellant wife and the respondent husband filed parallel divorce proceedings — the husband first in Belgium, the wife three days later in Quebec.
The husband applied to stay the Quebec proceedings on the basis of international lis pendens under art. 3137 C.C.Q., seeking to enforce his revocation of over $33 million in gifts made during marriage under art. 1096 of the Belgian Civil Code.
The Supreme Court held that the burden of proving susceptibility of recognition of the foreign judgment rests on the party seeking the stay, though that burden is not onerous; a prognosis or possibility of recognition suffices.
The majority further held that even where the conditions of art. 3137 C.C.Q. are met, the Quebec court retains discretion to decline to stay its ruling, and that discretion was not unreasonably exercised by the Superior Court.
The Court of Appeal's intervention in the trial judge's exercise of discretion was unwarranted; the criterion of possible recognition of the Quebec judgment in the foreign country is not determinative where the Quebec judgment would be effective in Quebec.
