Congiu – Federal Court of Appeal confirms that “judicial comity” dictated following a Quebec decision dealing with the same facts

The taxpayer was assessed under the equivalent GST and QST provisions of ss. 159 and 160 for distributing property without a clearance certificate. The Quebec assessments were judicially reviewed first, and while this decision was under appeal by the taxpayer to the Quebec Court of Appeal, her federal appeal came before Angers J on the basis of an agreed statement of facts reflecting the findings in the Quebec action.

Angers J found that it would be an abuse of process to consider essentially the same dispute, as there was a need to maintain "coherence" in judicial dispositions of the same question.  In the Federal Court of Appeal (whose task was eased by the intervening dismissal of the Quebec appeal) Blais JA stated that this application of "the principles of judicial comity was quite justified."

Neal Armstrong. Summary of Congiu v. The Queen, 2013 CCI 271, aff'd 2014 FCA 73 under General Concepts - Abuse of Process.