2 Pa. Super. 123 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1896
Opinion by
Marianne Hartman, the plaintiff, has a life interest in a property of the full use and enjoyment of which she claims she is deprived by the construction by the defendant of its incline plane upon adjoining land. A similar action was tried before in Allegheny county between the same parties and upon the trial a compulsory nonsuit was entered. The Supreme Court, upon appeal reversed the judgment: Hartman v. Incline Co., 159 Pa. 442. The case was subsequently called for trial in the court below, a jury sworn and all the witnesses for the plaintiff examined when the defendant tendered a judgment for the amount of the plaintiff’s claim. This action was at once brought for the continuing loss to her. The defendant assigns for error the admission in evidence by the court below of the record in the former trial, claiming that there was a variance between the statements of claim in that case and in this inasmuch as in the first case the statement claimed consequential damages and this statement does not and therefore the causes of action are not the same. When the case was before the Supreme Court it was held that there could be no recovery for the consequential damages and therefore that portion of the plaintiff’s claim was eliminated from consideration upon the retrial of the cause. The remaining assignments of error all related to the action of the court below in holding that the negligence of the defendant’s structure and the liability therefor were determined in the first suit and the finding of the jury in that action is conclusive. This is such a well settled doctrine in this state that it is no longer open to controversy. As early as 1828 Kilheffer v. Herr, 17 S. & R. 319, it was decided that “in an action upon the case for the continuance of a nuisance in erecting a dam a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff in a former action, in which the same matter was in controversy between the parties, are conclusive evidence as to the existence of the nuisance.” This has been
Judgment affirmed.