Duke v. Gregory-Salisbury & Co.

205 So. 2d 858, 1967 La. App. LEXIS 4720
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 6, 1967
DocketNo. 2745
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 205 So. 2d 858 (Duke v. Gregory-Salisbury & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Duke v. Gregory-Salisbury & Co., 205 So. 2d 858, 1967 La. App. LEXIS 4720 (La. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

JANVIER, Judge.

This matter comes before us on plaintiff’s appeal from a judgment which maintains a plea of res judicata and dismisses his suit. The issue is clearly stated by counsel for plaintiff in their brief as follows :

“The present suit is one filed by plaintiff-appellant against defendants-appel-lees arising out of a contract or contracts entered into while plaintiff-appellant was in the employ of defendants-appellees. The first suits, filed simultaneously, were met with an exception of no cause of action. The exception was sustained, the suits dismissed, and plaintiff-appellant did not appeal. ■ Subsequently, this suit was instituted against the same defendants and was met with an exception of res judicata. In their exception, defendants specifically pleaded the judgment entered in the first two suits (sustaining the exception of no cause of action) as res judicata to the present suit. Although defendants-appellees did not offer into evidence a copy of the judgment they pleaded, nor does one appear in the record before this Honorable Court, the Trial Court sustained the exception of res judicata and dismissed plaintiff’s suit.”

From the reasons given by the District Judge we find the facts to be that William M. Duke, the present plaintiff, sued Gregory-Salisbury & Company, Inc., Power-Strut Southern Service Company, Inc., now doing business as Gregory-Salisbury Metal Products Company, Inc., Herbert S. Gregory, individually and as an officer of the named defendant corporation, and Thomas M. Salisbury, alleging that the defendants are indebted to him under the terms of a written employment contract and an oral agreement. The named defendants filed a plea of res judicata, stating that in two suits entitled William M. Duke vs. Gregory-Salisbury & Company, Inc., No. 423-411, and William M. Duke vs. Power-Strut Southern Service Company, Inc., No. 423-412, Docket 4 of the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, which were consolidated, the plaintiff had attempted to obtain a judgment on allegations which [860]*860cannot be distinguished from those which appear in this case, and that in those earlier consolidated cases judgment had been rendered dismissing plaintiff’s suit on an exception of no cause of action and that there had been no appeal.

While the record which is before us does not show that the judgment in the earlier consolidated cases maintained an exception of no cause of action, the briefs of counsel make it evident that those suits were dismissed on that exception.

The contention of counsel for plaintiff in the matter before us is that those exceptions were maintained for the reason that the Court felt that necessary allegations, which might have shown a cause of action and which possibly could have been made, were not made and that, therefore, we should apply the well-established rule that, where a suit is dismissed on an exception of no cause of action because of the absence of essential allegations which possibly could have been made, that judgment may not form the ground for sustaining a plea of res judicata in a later case.

In Dupre v. Consolidated Underwriters, 99 So.2d 522, the Court of Appeal, First Circuit, said:

“And the jurisprudence uniformly holds that a judgment sustaining an exception of no cause of action on the ground of insufficient allegations without a trial on the merits is, in effect, a judgment of nonsuit and does not bar a subsequent suit in which allegations omitted in the original suit supply the cause of action. Woodruff v. Producers’ Oil Co., 142 La. 368, 76 So. 803; Catalano v. Pritchard, 2 Cir., 19 La.App. 262, 140 So. 100; Smardon v. Broussard, 1 Cir., 6 La.App. 579; 27 C.J.S. Dismissal and Nonsuit § 73, p. 254.”

There is no doubt that various decisions involving pleas of res judicata have made it sometimes difficult to determine just what is necessary for the maintenance of such a plea. In fact, in XIX Louisiana Law Review, on page 390, the late Professor Henry G. McMahon wrote: “If there is anything in Louisiana which is not res judicata, it is the subject of res judicata itself.”

However, in determining whether a plea of res judicata should be sustained, we must first look to Article 2286 of our Civil Code which provides:

“The authority of the thing adjudged takes place only with respect to what was the object of the judgment. The thing demanded must be the same; the demand must be founded on the same cause of action; the demand must be between the same parties, and formed by them against each other in the same quality.”

It is conceded that the demand here and the demand in the earlier cases was between the same parties, as is the matter before us, and between them “in the same capacity”. We must, therefore, determine whether the demand is founded on the same cause of action, and, in view of the decision from which this appeal is taken, we have considered whether we might not act on the presumption of correctness which arises from the decision itself.

In Modern Appliance & Supply, Inc. v. Sapp, La.App., 200 So.2d 363, we said:

“There is a strong presumption that a trial court judgment is valid and that the trial judge acted upon proper evidence sufficient to serve as a basis for the judgment rendered [citing many authorities].”

However, counsel for appellant insist that the allegations in the record in the earlier consolidated cases and the reasons for judgment given in those cases will indicate that the causes of action there were not the same as the cause here, and counsel say that since that record in those earlier cases is not before us, we have nothing on which we can base the presumption of correctness.

[861]*861It is true that we have only the presumption of correctness, but if that presumption is to be overcome, it can result only from an examination of the earlier record and by a comparison by us of the allegations there and the reasons given with the allegations here and the reasons given by the District Judge in this case.

In his reasons for judgment the District Judge said:

“A close examination of the records hereinabove referred to convinces this Court that the suits are identical in that the present suit is founded on the same cause of action, demands the same thing and is between the same parties.”

That that consolidated record is not before us is due to the fault of appellant. Code of Civil Procedure, art. 2128. All that appellee was required to do was to have the District Judge in this case examine the records in the earlier cases and those records were before him since they were in the same court.

They are not before us and we have not the right to consider any parts of those records until they are brought before us in some manner.

In New Orleans Industrial Canal Land & Harbor Development Co., Inc., v. Kohler, 150 So. 874, we (Court of Appeal, Orleans) said:

“The pleas of res judicata and estoppel are based upon an alleged suit said to have been filed by the plaintiff against the defendant in the civil district court for the parish of Orleans under the No. 176635. The record in this suit was not offered in evidence and forms no part of the transcript. Defendant’s counsel relies, in this respect, upon the statement that we should take judicial cognizance of the records of the civil district court.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cotton v. DELTA QUEEN STEAMBOAT CO., INC.
36 So. 3d 262 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2010)
Joiner v. Wilson
377 So. 2d 583 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1979)
American Bank & Trust Company v. French
226 So. 2d 580 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1969)
Simon v. Broussard
216 So. 2d 668 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1968)
Eugene v. Ventress
209 So. 2d 341 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1968)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
205 So. 2d 858, 1967 La. App. LEXIS 4720, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/duke-v-gregory-salisbury-co-lactapp-1967.