A defendant who had no knowledge of foreign appellate proceedings in which former lawyers acted without authority has an arguable defence of denial of natural justice to enforcement of the resulting foreign judgment. The 'mode of notification' doctrine from Vallee v Dumerge does not clearly extend to appellate proceedings where the defendant's engagement of lawyers was limited to first instance proceedings. Cases holding that a party who voluntarily withdraws from proceedings cannot claim denial of natural justice do not apply where the party had no knowledge of the proceedings at all.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 10 later cases that cite this judgment.
3 of the 10 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.