§ 1720.Stay If Appeal Pending Or Will Be Taken

Recognizing a foreign judgment while an appeal of it is still working its way through the foreign court system risks recognizing something that might not survive that appeal, and this section gives courts the flexibility to avoid that outcome. If a party establishes that an appeal from the foreign-country judgment is pending, or will be taken, in the country where it was rendered, the California court may stay its own proceedings involving that judgment.

The stay is not indefinite by default, though the section leaves its exact duration to the court's judgment based on the circumstances. It can last until the foreign appeal concludes, until the deadline for taking an appeal expires without one being filed, or until the would-be appellant has had a reasonable amount of time to pursue the appeal and has not done so. That last option keeps a party from indefinitely delaying recognition by claiming an appeal is coming without ever filing one.