Foreign Issue Estoppel in Theory and Practice

AstraZeneca Canada Inc v Apotex Inc / omeprazole 2015 FC 322 Barnes J
            1,292,693 / omeprazole formulation / LOSEC

An overview of this litigation is given in yesterday’s post. Parallel litigation US had taken place between the parties and AstraZeneca argued that principles of issue estoppel and abuse of process should apply to prevent relitigation of a number of findings of fact made by the US court in that previous litigation. There is an interesting issue of principle, discussed here, here and here, as to whether issue estoppel in Canadian patent litigation can be based on foreign findings of fact. The theory in favour of accepting foreign issue estoppel is the same as for domestic issue estoppel: it will save judicial resources and save the embarrassment of inconsistent decisions.

Barnes J recognized this theoretical argument, but he had a powerful rejoinder:

[379 [T]he practical problems of applying estoppel in a way that will actually protect judicial resources cannot be ignored. Those problems were quite apparent in this case.

[380] Given the discretionary nature of the application of foreign issue estoppel, AstraZeneca could not prudently assume the doctrine would be applied. It, therefore, independently led evidence on all of the above evidentiary points required to make its case. The practical effect of this was that no time was saved. In fact, by pleading estoppel, the trial was substantially lengthened. In response to AstraZeneca’s plea of estoppel, Apotex led fact evidence from two attorneys involved in the United States omeprazole proceedings, Martin Endres and Robert Silver. It also led opinion evidence from two legal experts, Judge Benson Legg (retired) and Mr. John Whealan. That evidence described the approach that the United States District Court took to the management of its multi-party infringement actions including the separation of the proceeding into waves. The purpose of this evidence was to attempt to explain the differences between United States and Canadian procedures and substantive patent law and to show that the two systems are sufficiently distinct that the application of estoppel would work an injustice on Apotex.

The theory is that foreign issue estoppel will reduce litigation costs; the practical reality, at least in this case, is that costs were increased to no benefit. Consequently,

[381] Considering the somewhat unusual process that was followed in the United States second wave proceedings involving Apotex, the practical disadvantages of applying issue estoppel to only a handful of findings made in that proceeding, and the fact that it is not necessary to rely upon the doctrine to fill a gap in the evidentiary record, I decline to apply the principle here.