My Parent’s Keeper? Enforcement Action Allowed To Proceed Against Parent, Subsidiary Corporations

The Ontario Court of Appeal recently addressed the Ontario courts' power to hear actions seeking recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in Ontario. In the case of Yaiguaje v. Chevron Corporation (Yaiguaje), the Court of Appeal affirmed that a party seeking an order recognizing and enforcing a judgment of a non-Ontario court does not have to establish that the Ontario courts have jurisdiction over the judgment debtor or over the subject matter of the claim underlying the foreign judgment.

Of perhaps greater interest, the Court of Appeal specifically permitted the enforcement action in Yaiguaje to proceed against both the American corporation that was the subject of the foreign judgment in issue, but also against its indirect Canadian subsidiary – a party that played no role in the foreign proceedings.