Lindsey and Others v Conteh

The appellants, shareholders acting derivatively on behalf of African Wireless Incorporated (a Delaware corporation), obtained a series of default and supplemental orders from the Superior Court of California against Mr Conteh. The Californian orders required Mr Conteh to turn over certain shares in foreign companies that he had allegedly transferred without authority. When the shares could not be obtained, Californian law permitted enforcement of the possession orders in the same manner as a money judgment for the value of the shares, and a writ of execution was issued reflecting a monetary value. Relying on these orders and writs, the appellants sought provisional sentence in the Gauteng High Court, contending that the foreign judgment constituted a liquid document evidencing a monetary debt. The High Court dismissed the application, finding that the foreign judgment was not a liquid document.

The appeal was dismissed with costs, including the costs of two counsel.

The case clarifies that for purposes of provisional sentence, a foreign judgment must itself be a money judgment to constitute a liquid document. The decision draws an important distinction between the nature of a foreign judgment and the foreign law mechanisms for its enforcement, reinforcing limits on the recognition of foreign procedural rules in South African courts.