Roman Frenkel v Arkadiy Lyampert

Where no reciprocal enforcement regime applies, an English court may enforce a final and conclusive foreign money judgment at common law by entering its own judgment for the amount due.

A renewal order which updates interest, adds accrued interest to the principal and extends the enforcement period does not necessarily supersede the underlying judgment. A composite sum remains sufficiently definite where the amount due to each judgment creditor can be identified by arithmetical calculation.

Where the precise foreign debt remains disputed, the court may permit enforcement only to the extent that an undisputed balance is clearly sufficient to support the relevant set-off. The calculation must be made according to the foreign law governing the judgment.

The claimant sought summary judgment to enforce in England a judgment of the Superior Court of California dated 22 February 2017. The judgment included sums payable to the claimant and to Design Creator Inc, together with later costs. It was subsequently renewed and corrected in California to update accrued interest, add further costs and extend the enforcement period.

The parties had also been involved in English costs proceedings. The claimant sought to set off the assessed costs payable to the defendant against the Californian judgment debt. The defendant accepted liability under the 2017 judgment but disputed the calculation of the renewed sum, including the treatment of earlier set-offs, interest and sums payable to the other judgment creditor.

The central issues were whether the claim was based on the 2017 judgment or the renewal order, whether the foreign judgment debt was sufficiently definite and final for common-law enforcement, and whether enforcement should be permitted while the precise quantum remained unresolved.

1. The application succeeded, but enforcement of the entire sum stated in the Second Renewal Order was not ordered. The claimant was permitted to proceed to the extent necessary to set off the undisputed judgment debt against the costs assessed in favour of the defendant.

2. In the absence of applicable treaty or reciprocal-enforcement legislation, enforcement proceeded at common law. The English court enters its own judgment based on the binding effect of the foreign judgment. The requirements stated in Rule 14R-024 of Dicey, Morris and Collins on the Conflicts of Laws included a foreign judgment in personam, given by a court with jurisdiction, for a debt or definite sum of money, and final and conclusive.

3. The proceedings were based on the 2017 California Judgment. The First and Second Renewal Orders were not stand-alone judgments. They updated accrued interest, added it to the principal and extended the limitation period for enforcement. The fact that the judgment expressed the total sum due to the claimant and Design Creator Inc together did not prevent enforcement, because the sums due to each creditor could be identified by arithmetical calculation.

4. The amount due did not need to appear as a fixed figure incapable of further calculation. It was sufficient that the sum could be determined by a mere arithmetical calculation, applying Californian law to interest and the treatment of payments. The defendant had not produced evidence contradicting the claimant’s evidence on the effect of Californian law.

5. Nevertheless, the court was not in a position to determine the current total sum due under the Second Renewal Order because the quantum remained disputed and had not been resolved by agreement or by the California court. That prevented an order enforcing the entire renewed sum.

6. The unresolved dispute did not prevent limited enforcement. Even on the defendant’s calculation, the debt substantially exceeded the assessed costs due under the Tipples Costs Order. The claimant could therefore obtain the benefit of the set-off against a sufficient undisputed part of the Californian judgment debt.

7. Costs were provisionally to follow the general rule in CPR 44.2(2), subject to further submissions at hand down.