Executive Summary: Key Legal and Evidentiary Issues

• A 2022 judgment ordering radiation of a hypothec was written in English, which prevented the plaintiffs from registering it on Quebec's land register.
• Quebec law requires that registration requisitions on the land register be written exclusively in French under article 2984 C.c.Q.
• Filing the requisition in summary form was not possible because article 3057.1 C.c.Q. limits summary-form radiations to cases involving unpaid property taxes.
• Presenting a certified French translation of the English judgment was not a solution, since a translation does not qualify as an authentic act under article 2982 C.c.Q.
• Article 657 C.p.c. gave the Tribunal a broad power to issue orders facilitating execution of a judgment without modifying its substance.
• Precedent from Air Canada c. P.A. and Miramare Investment Incorporated c. AOD Corporation supported the Tribunal's decision to reissue the 2022 conclusions in French so the radiation could be registered.

Facts of the case

On April 28, 2022, the Tribunal rendered a corrected judgment ordering the radiation of a hypothec published on the land register for the Gatineau land registration division. Because the underlying application had been uncontested and drafted in English, the judgment itself was written in English. The notary who had presented the application tried without success to have the judgment registered on the land register, and also attempted to have a certified French translation published in Quebec. The Officer of the Publicity of Rights for the Gatineau land registration division refused to proceed with the registration because the requisition for radiation had to be written in French. The notary then brought this application under article 657 C.p.c., asking the court to issue an order reproducing, in French, the conclusions of the 2022 judgment so that it could finally be registered.

Statutory provisions at issue

Article 2982 C.c.Q. sets out how a registration requisition may be presented to the Bureau de la publicité foncière: through the act itself, an authentic extract of it, a summary, or, where the law allows, a notice. For a conventional hypothec, article 3057.1 C.c.Q. provides that radiation requisitions on the land register "ne peuvent prendre la forme d'un sommaire que dans les cas prévus par la loi," and those exceptions apply only to radiations arising from the exercise of hypothecary rights for unpaid property taxes. As a result, the requisition here had to be made by presenting the act itself. Under article 2984 C.c.Q., as amended by the Act respecting the official and common language of Quebec, French (L.Q. 2022, c. 14), such requisitions must be written exclusively in French. Article 2982 C.c.Q. also requires that the act presented be an authentic one, which meant a French translation of the English judgment could not be substituted, since a translation is not an authentic act.

The court's reasoning

The plaintiffs were left unable to execute a valid judgment simply because of its language. The Tribunal turned to article 657 C.p.c., which allows a court, after judgment, to issue any order suited to facilitating a judgment's execution in the manner most consistent with and advantageous to the parties' interests. Citing the Court of Appeal's decision in Air Canada c. P.A., 2025 QCCA 518, the Tribunal noted that article 657 C.p.c. lets a court interpret or clarify a judgment to ease its execution, including determining amounts owed under it, and that its purpose is to resolve execution difficulties quickly without a new judicial process. The only limit on this power is that the original judgment's substance cannot be changed; an order under article 657 C.p.c. must be a natural extension of the earlier decision rather than a disguised appeal. The Tribunal also relied on Miramare Investment Incorporated c. AOD Corporation, 2024 QCCA 1194, in which the Court of Appeal confirmed that while article 657 C.p.c. cannot be used to alter a judgment's substance, it can be used to direct someone on how to carry out obligations flowing from that judgment's execution.

Ruling and outcome

Applying this reasoning, the Tribunal found that using its article 657 C.p.c. power was appropriate to allow the 2022 judgment to actually be implemented. It granted the application brought by the plaintiffs, Maria Elena Baisas (Matienzo) and Antonio Baisas, and reissued in French the radiation-related conclusions of the corrected April 28, 2022 judgment. The Tribunal ordered radiation of the hypothec registered on September 26, 2006 under number 17 204 347 at the Gatineau land registration division, and directed the Officer of the Publicity of Rights to carry out that radiation once a compliant registration requisition is presented and the required fees are paid. The plaintiffs were also dispensed from having to serve the judgment. No monetary award was made in the plaintiffs' favor — the judgment expressly states it is rendered "sans frais de justice," meaning without an award of legal costs.