45 Kan. 244 | Kan. | 1891
Opinion by
On the 29th day of December, 1886, G. W. Stockham commenced this action against Samuel Shepard, in the district court of McPherson county, alleging, in substance, that on the 9th day of June,, 1883, the defendant sold and delivered to him sixty-two and one-fourth shares of the capital stock of the Conway Town Company, but that
The facts in this case are peculiar and novel, and may be stated briefly as follows: Shepard owned one hundred and sixty acres of land in McPherson county, and in consideration of $6,125 par value of stock in the Arkansas Valley Town Company, deeded to the company forty acres for a town-site, as a part of Conway; on the 9th day of June, 1883, he sold the remaining one hundred and twenty acres of his farm to Stockham, giving him a warranty deed for the same. It was claimed by Stockham that this sale included the stock in the town company; that' he had neglected to have a written transfer made, but did obtain possession of the stock. Shep
In this case, the jury rendered a special verdict, and among other questions asked and answered, were the following:
“State at what time, if at all, the plaintiff, Samuel Shepard, sold his certificate of shares in the Conway Town Co. to the defendant, G. W. Stoekham? A. Never sold them.
*247 “ Question 2. At what time was the certificate of shares of the plaintiff Shepard delivered to the defendant Stockham? A. Never delivered.”
Upon the. rendition of the judgment in the case for malicious prosecution, the plaintiff in error in this case obtained leave of the court to file a supplemental answer, setting up, first, that the issues involved in the case had all been settled, by the special findings, verdict and judgment in the action for malicious prosecution, and were, therefore, res ad/judicata; second, that if such was not the case, that Shepard had a judgment of $800, which he was entitled to set up as an offset in case the finding as to the ownership should be against him; the court sustained the demurrer as to the first cause of action, and overruled it as to the second, but upon the trial excluded all evidence tending to prove it. The trial of this case occurred on the 27th day of April, 1888.
The first ground of error relied upon is the ruling of the court in sustaining the demurrer to the defense of res adjudi-cata, set up in the supplemental answer. The real question for our determination is, whether or not the same subject-matter between these parties was drawn in question, or included in the issue, so that it could be, or was, as a matter of fact, tried and determined by the special findings, verdict and judgment in the former action, in the same court and where the same persons were parties. A solution of this question is a decision of this case. Three things, says Chief Justice Shaw, seem to be necessary to constitute an adjudication, so that a former judgment may be pleaded as a bar to another suit: First, whether the subject-matter of a legal controversy which is proposed to be brought before any court for adjudication, has been drawn in question, and whether the issues of the former judicial proceeding which has been determined is a legal judgment on the matters, so that the whole question may have been determined by that adjudication; second, whether the proceedings were between the same parties, in the same right or capacity, relating to the subsequent suit, or with their privies respectively, claiming through or under
' “ When the merits in an action have been passed upon, or from the issues made by the pleadings might have been passed upon, the judgment rendered in the case bars a subsequent suit for the same cause of action between the same parties. When the same cause of action has once been litigated and decided, that is an end of it, and the form of action is immaterial. If the cause is the same, the judgment is conclusive.” (Bank v. Rude, 23 Kas. 146.)
“There is a growing disposition to enlarge the scope of the doctrine of res adjudieata.” (Comm’rs of Wilson Co. v. McIntosh, 30 Kas. 238.)
“The rule of res adjudieata applies as well to facts settled and adjudicated as to causes of action.” (Whittaker v. Hawley, 30 Kas. 327.)
We find the same doctrine enunciated by text writers.
“There are but few older principles or rules of law that have been handed down from generation to generation, from the earliest days of the Roman law to the present time, than that of estoppel.” (1 Herman, Estop., §1.)
“There is no doubt that a judgment or decree necessarily affirming the existence of any act is conclusive upon the parties or their privies, whenever the existence of the fact is again put in issue between them, not only when the subject-matter is the same, but when the point comes incidentally in question in relation to a different matter. . . . To render a matter res adjudieata, it is not essential that it should be distinctly .and specifically put in issue by the pleadings. It is enough to have been shown and tried and settled in the former suit.” (Freeman, Judgm., §249.)
“To constitute a judgment in one case a bar to another action, it is not necessary that the object of the two suits be the same, nor that the parties should stand in the same relative position to each other.” (Barker v. Cleveland, 19 Mich. 230.)
*249 “The judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction is conclusive on the parties as to all points directly involved in it, and necessarily determined.” (Shirland v. National Bank, 21 N. W. Rep. 200; Hahn v. Miller, 28 id. 51.)
“The judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction upon a particular matter, fact or point once litigated and determined is conclusive between the parties or their privies.” (Wales v. Lyon, 2 Mich. 282.)
“Such judgment is conclusive when given in evidence, though not pleaded by way of estoppel.” (Trayhern v. Colburn, 66 Md. 227.)
The estoppel of an issue on a particular point, or of the judgment itself as to the point which it decides, will be conclusive as to the points in any subsequent proceeding, whether founded on the same or a different cause of action. (1 Herman, Estop., § 111, and cases there cited; 3 Smith, Lead. Cas., 9th ed., 2095; Cromwell v. County of Sac, 94 U. S. 351; Wilson v. Deen, 121 id. 525; Gardner v. Buckbee, 3 Cowen, 120; Furneaux v. Bank, 39 Kas. 146.)
When a matter is once adjudicated, it is conclusively determined, as between the same parties and their privies'; and this determination is binding, as an estoppel, in all other actions, whether commenced before or after the action in which the adjudication was made. (Freeman, Judg., § 249; Poorman v. Mitchell, 48 Mo. 45; Allis v. Davidson, 23 Minn. 442; Casebeer v. Mowry, 55 Pa. St. 419.) In the latter case, the court said:
“The date is of no consequence; it is the fact of an adjudication on the subject-matter between the same parties, which gives effect to the former recovery. The operation is the same, whether the record be pleaded by the one or the other of the parties.”
Something has been said about the sufficiency of the plea, but we think it good, upon demurrer. If it were not sufficiently full, definite and certain, the proper way to raise that question would have been by motion. The demurrer should have been overruled.
It is not necessary for us to notice the other errors complained of.
We recommend a reversal of the judgment.
By the Court: It is so ordered.