Estate of Goston v. Ford Motor Co.

898 S.W.2d 471, 320 Ark. 699, 1995 Ark. LEXIS 346
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJune 5, 1995
Docket94-1229
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 898 S.W.2d 471 (Estate of Goston v. Ford Motor Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Estate of Goston v. Ford Motor Co., 898 S.W.2d 471, 320 Ark. 699, 1995 Ark. LEXIS 346 (Ark. 1995).

Opinion

Andree Layton Roaf, Justice.

This tort case presents the question of whether the Circuit Judge was correct in dismissing a claim on the basis of res judicata. We affirm the result reached by the trial court, but for the reason that the appellant’s claim was precluded by Ark. R. Civ. P. 13(a), which requires that a compulsory counterclaim be pled.

This case arises from an accident between two vehicles that occurred on February 12, 1988. Leo Goston, appellant, was heading north on John Barrow Road in Little Rock and was attempting to make a left turn onto a side street. Freddie Craig, appellee, was heading south on Barrow road and collided with Goston’s car as it was in the process of making the turn.

The Goston car burst into flames and Leo Goston’s wife Venita, a passenger, was severely burned and subsequently died. Leo Goston also claimed injuries as did Freddie Craig. There were two lawsuits between Goston and Craig based on this accident and this appeal is only from the latter of the two, in which Goston sued Craig.

On December 19, 1988, Freddie Craig filed a personal injury action against Leo Goston. Craig alleged that the accident occurred as the result of negligence on the part of Goston. Goston did not file an answer within the required time, but filed an untimely motion to dismiss. On the basis of that untimely response Craig moved for a default judgment. A default judgment was granted in favor of Craig on February 15, 1989.

Goston made unsuccessful attempts to get the judgment set aside and appealed the judgment. This case was affirmed in Goston v. Craig, 34 Ark.App. 23, 805 S.W.2d 92 (1991), on March 6, 1991.

In February 1991, Goston filed suit against Craig, Ford Motor Company, and Walt Bennett Ford based on the same accident. Goston asserted his individual cause of action, a wrongful death for Venita Goston, and derivative claims of the statutory beneficiaries of Venita Goston. Both Ford and Walt Bennett filed cross claims against Craig; Walt Bennett filed a cross claim against Ford.

Craig answered and moved for summary judgment on the basis of res judicata by reason of the default judgment Craig had obtained against Goston in the first suit. The trial court granted Craig’s motion on that basis in an amended order entered December 19, 1991. Goston filed a notice of appeal from that order.

Goston’s initial appeal of the order of December 19, 1991 was dismissed by this court on the basis of Ark. R. Civ. P. 54(b).

In March, 1993, Goston filed an amended complaint, including along with the originally named defendants, three additional defendants. He later obtained dismissal by non-suit of all claims and cross-claims except his individual claim against Craig, non-suiting the last defendant on August 12, 1994. He again filed his notice of appeal of the December 19, 1991 order granting summary judgment to Craig.

The appeal before us now is from the December 19, 1991 order which granted summary judgment to Craig on the basis of res judicata. While we do not agree with the basis on which the trial court granted the motion for summary judgment, this court will affirm the trial court where it has reached the right conclusion for the wrong reasons. Summers Chevrolet, Inc. v. Yell County, 310 Ark 1, 832 S.W.2d 486 (1992). We therefore affirm on the basis that Rule 13(a) precludes the appellant from pursuing his claim against Craig.

Goston raises three points on appeal: (1) that the trial court erred in granting the motion for summary judgment based on the doctrine of res judicata, (2) that the compulsory counterclaim provisions of Ark. R. Civ. P. 13(a) do not bar his claim against Craig for his personal injuries and (3) that summary judgment was entered in error because Craig waived or should be estopped from asserting that Goston was required to have litigated the issues of Craig’s negligence in the previous action filed by Craig.

Goston first argues that the doctrine of res judicata or “claim preclusion” does not operate to permit the default judgment obtained by Craig to bar Goston from asserting his separate cause of action against Craig, even though both claims arose from the same accident. Craig responds to the argument by asserting that it is collateral estoppel or “issue preclusion,” that actually bars Goston’s claim.

This court has addressed the distinction between claim and issue preclusion on a number of occasions. The difference between the two concepts is stated in John Cheeseman Trucking Inc. v. Pinson, 313 Ark. 632, 855 S.W.2d 941 (1993):

The concept of res judicata has two facets. One being issue preclusion and the other being claim preclusion. Issues in connection with this appeal are governed by the issue preclusion facet of the concept of res judicata. Claim preclusion forecloses further litigation on a cause of action. Bailey v. Harris Brake Fire Protection Dist., 287 Ark. 268, 697 S.W.2d 916 (1985). Issue preclusion precludes further litigation in connection with a certain issue. Issue preclusion is limited to those matters previously at issue, which were directly and necessarily adjudicated. Smith v. Roane, 284 Ark. 568, 683 S.W.2d 935 (1985).

This court has elaborated on that distinction in Bailey v. Harris, supra:

[C]laim preclusion bars not only the relitigation of issues which were actually litigated in the first suit, but also those which could have been litigated but were not. Wells v. Ark.Pub.Serv.Comm’n, supra; and Lovell v. Mixon, 719 F.2d 1373 (8th Cir. 1983). In contrast, issue preclusion, or the collateral estoppel aspect of res judicata, is limited to those matters previously at issue which were directly and necessarily adjudicated. Smith v. Roane, 284 Ark. 568, 683 S.W.2d 935 (1983).

The Restatement (Second) of Judgments’ (1982) definition of claim preclusion is found at §18 and it provides:

When a valid and final personal judgment is rendered in favor of the plaintiff:
(1) The plaintiff cannot thereafter maintain an action on the original claim or any part thereof, although he may be able to maintain an action upon the judgment; and
(2) In an action upon the judgment, the defendant cannot avail himself of defenses he might have interposed, or did interpose, in the first action.

The definition of issue preclusion is found at § 27 of the Restatement:

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898 S.W.2d 471, 320 Ark. 699, 1995 Ark. LEXIS 346, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-goston-v-ford-motor-co-ark-1995.