Opinion ID: 433759
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Protection of Jurisdiction

Text: 66 Courts have a duty to protect their legitimately conferred jurisdiction to the extent necessary to provide full justice to litigants. Thus, when the action of a litigant in another forum threatens to paralyze the jurisdiction of the court, the court may consider the effectiveness and propriety of issuing an injunction against the litigant's participation in the foreign proceedings. 67 These situations may arise either before or after a judgment has been entered. 52 The policies that guide the exercise of discretion vary slightly in each situation. When the injunction is requested after a previous judgment on the merits, there is little interference with the rule favoring parallel proceedings in matters subject to concurrent jurisdiction. 53 Thus, a court may freely protect the integrity of its judgments by preventing their evasion through vexatious or oppressive relitigation. 54 68 However, when a party requests the issuance of an injunction to protect the court's jurisdiction before a judgment has been reached, the rules are less clear. Some courts issue the injunction when the parties and issues are identical in both actions, justifying the injunction as necessary to prevent duplicative and, therefore, vexatious litigation. 55 However, this rationale is prima facie inconsistent with the rule permitting parallel proceedings in concurrent in personam actions. The policies underlying this rule--avoiding hardship to parties and promoting the economies of consolidated litigation--are more properly considered in a motion for dismissal for forum non conveniens. 56 They do not outweigh the important principles of comity that compel deference and mutual respect for concurrent foreign proceedings. Thus, the better rule is that duplication of parties and issues alone is not sufficient to justify issuance of an antisuit injunction. 57 69 Similarly, the possibility of an embarrassing race to judgment or potentially inconsistent adjudications 58 does not outweigh the respect and deference owed to independent foreign proceedings. 59 The parallel proceeding rule applies only until a judgment is reached in one of the actions. 60 After that point, the second forum is usually obliged to respect the prior adjudication of the matter. 61 If the rules regarding enforcement of foreign judgments are followed there will seldom be a case where parties reach inconsistent judgments. 70 There is little, if any, evidence of courts sacrificing procedural or substantive justice in an effort to race to a prior judgment. To the extent this slight risk exists it is outweighed by the more important policies favoring respect for concurrent proceedings. In any event, most forums need not fear that their crucial policies would be trampled if a foreign judgment is reached first, since violation of domestic public policy may justify not enforcing the foreign judgment. 62 71 These and other factors 63 relied upon to support issuance of prejudgment protective injunctions in aid of jurisdiction do not usually outweigh the importance of permitting foreign concurrent actions. Thus, although they suggest possible bases favoring the district court's decision to enjoin the appellants, we do not find them controlling. 72 The logical reciprocal of the parallel proceeding rule proves that there must be circumstances in which an antisuit injunction is necessary to conserve the court's ability to reach a judgment. Just as the parallel proceeding rule counsels against interference with a foreign court's exercise of concurrent jurisdiction, it authorizes the domestic court to resist the attempts of a foreign court to interfere with an in personam action before the domestic court. 64 When the availability of an action in the domestic courts is necessary to a full and fair adjudication of the plaintiff's claims, a court should preserve that forum. 65 5] Thus, where the foreign proceeding is not following a parallel track but attempts to carve out exclusive jurisdiction over concurrent actions, an injunction may be necessary to avoid the possibility of losing validly invoked jurisdiction. This would be particularly true if the foreign forum did not offer the remedy sought in the domestic forum. 73 The district court's injunction was clearly proper under these principles. As far as could be determined by the initial pleadings and papers filed, jurisdiction to prescribe was properly exercised. Consequently, the court's ability to render a just and final judgment had to be protected, absent clear evidence that the foreign action could fully consider the litigant's claims. 74 Appellants characterize the district court's injunction as an improper attempt to reserve to the district court's exclusive jurisdiction an action that should be allowed to proceed simultaneously in parallel forums. Actually, the reverse is true. The English action was initiated for the purpose of reserving exclusive prescriptive jurisdiction to the English courts, even though the English courts do not and can not pretend to offer the plaintiffs here the remedies afforded by the American antitrust laws. 75 Although concurrently authorized by overlapping principles of prescriptive jurisdiction, the British and American actions are not parallel proceedings in the sense the term is normally used. This is not a situation where two courts are proceeding to separate judgments simultaneously under one cause of action. Rather, the sole purpose of the English proceeding is to terminate the American action. The writs filed in the High Court of Justice sought to paralyze or halt the proceedings before the United States District Court. Although they also sought a determination that the defendants had not engaged in any unlawful conduct, the clear thrust of the requested relief was the termination of the United States antitrust claim. 66 Appellants conceded at oral argument that they are not interested in concurrent proceedings in the courts of the United Kingdom--they want only the abandonment or dismissal of the American action against them. 67 Further proof of this is Judge Greene's offer to draft the injunction more narrowly to permit certain proceedings that were not inconsistent with the unhindered continuation of the United States antitrust action. 68 That no suggestions were made by the appellants to narrow the injunction indicates that they are only interested in interfering with the antitrust action, and not in adjudicating the existence of an unlawful conspiracy under British law. 76 Judge Greene faced the stark choice of either protecting or relinquishing his jurisdiction. Midland Bank had previously obtained a preemptive interim injunction against Laker's naming it as a defendant in a United States antitrust action. Subsequently all of the foreign defendants in No. 82-3362 appeared in the High Court of Justice without notice to either Laker or the United States District Court and obtained interim protection. The remaining defendants, although domestic corporations, had to be restrained from attempting to follow the same path. It was equally clear that appellants also intended to seek English injunctive relief. Due to the lack of any prior notice by the four foreign defendants, the district court was threatened with a potential fait accompli by the appellants which would have virtually eliminated the court's effective jurisdiction over Laker's facially valid claim. Given the tensions between the parties, it is likely that the threat worsened every day. Thus, there was nothing improper in the district court's decision to enjoin appellants from seeking to participate in the English proceedings solely designed to rob the court of its jurisdiction.