Greenwood Drug Co. v. Bromonia Co.

62 S.E. 840, 81 S.C. 516, 1908 S.C. LEXIS 282
CourtSupreme Court of South Carolina
DecidedNovember 16, 1908
Docket7055
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 62 S.E. 840 (Greenwood Drug Co. v. Bromonia Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Greenwood Drug Co. v. Bromonia Co., 62 S.E. 840, 81 S.C. 516, 1908 S.C. LEXIS 282 (S.C. 1908).

Opinion

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

Mr. Justice Jones.

T'hi's appeal involves the application of the law of estoppel by judgment.

In a former action the Bromonia Company recovered judgment against Greenwood Drug Company for the value of a quantity of oertain medicine called Bromonia, amount-to $140, and for expenses of advertising said medicine, amounting to $57.50, pursuant to a contract entered into between the parties, which judgment on appeal to this Court was affirmed. Bromonia Company v. Greenwood Drug Company, 78 S. C., 482, 59 S. E., 363. Thereafter, Greenwood Drug Company paid the judgment, and brought this action against the Bromonia Company, and attached the fund's paid in settlement of said judgment. The complaint in this action 'seeks to recover damages for alleged fraudulent misrepresentation, by the Bromonia Company, which induced Greenwood Drug Company to enter into the contract sued on in a former action, and for the worthlessness of the medicine for which recovery was had, alleging as elements of the damages the $140 paid as the price of the goods; $57.50, the amount paid for advertising; $30.36, interest on these amounts; $71.70, the costs of that suit; and $90.94, the attorneys’ fees 'and expenses incurred by Greenwood Drug Company ini defending that suit.

Judge Gage dissolved the attachment and dismissed the complaint, holding that the plaintiff, Greenwood Drug Company, was estopped by the judgment in the former action, from which order appeal is taken by the defendant.

The reasons given by Judge Gage 'are as follows: “The complaint ini the second case is practically the same as the *518 answer ini the first case, except that it alleges a scienter on the part of the Bromonia Company when it made the alleged false statements. The Greenwood Company contends that the issue of fraud which it now makes has never been heretofore made and adjudicated; that it is entitled to a day in Court, and now demands it. It contends that, inasmuch as that issue was not made ini the first action, it was not then adjudicated.

“The parties to the action are the same; the Court is the same; the subject-matter, Bromonia, and the advertisement of it, is the same. The exact issue in the first case was: Did the Greenwood Drug Company owe the Bromonia Company for <a lot of medicine, and for money paid out in the advertisement of the medicine? That, too, is the issue in the second case. It was decided in the first case, and that ends the controversy. Cromwell v. Sac County, 94 U. S., 352.

“If Smith should sue Brown on a note, and Brown should plead payment, and the jury should' find for Smith, Brown could not thereafter renew the controversy by pleading that Smith had seduced him into signing the note by fraudulent misrepresentation's.”

We think the judgment should be affirmed. The general rule is that a judgment giving effect to a contract is conclusive evidence that it is free from fraud or illegality, although such issue was not raised in the action, except where the party objecting was ignorant of the' fraud or illegality before judgment, or was prevented from pleading it. 33 Cyc., 1394. The case of Hart v. Bates falls within the exception stated, as, in that case, the fraud was not discovered until after the former judgment. Estoppel by judgment on the merits covers not only what was actually decided, but also what was necessarily implied in the final result. 33 Cyc., 13Ob. O'ur decisions are in accord with this general rule. In Willis v. Tozier, 44 S. C., 1, 17, the Court said: “A judgment is conclusive between the parties *519 to it, not only as to those matters which were actually decided, but also all such as were necessarily involved in its rendition. Trimmier v. Thompson, 19 S. C., 254; Micheau ads. Caldwell, 1 Spear, 276.” Hence, a judgment on a note is conclusive that t'he maker’s name was not forged. Fraser & Dill v. Charleston, 19 S. C., 384. And allegations of fraud in the execution of a mortgage and prior payments are res judicata after judgment of foreclosure and sale, and will not support an action to set aside the sale and vacate the mortgage where the defendant appeared in the former action and had' opportunity to litigate such question. Ruff v. Doty, 26 S. C., 173, 1 S. E., 707. In this last mentioned case the Court, referring to Hart v. Bates, 17 S. C., 35. and Fraser & Dill v. Charleston, 19 S. C., 399, said: “These two cases, considered together, decide briefly that a matter not necessarily involved, and not raised in >a previous case, is not res judicata; but if necessarily involved, and (whether) raised on not, it is concluded, and especially so if the party denying the adjudication knew of the matter and could have interposed it at a previous trial, either in support of a claim or as a defense.” In Ryan v. Association, 50 S. C., 188, 27 S. E., 618, the Court held a judgment debtor estopped from bringing a separate action under section 1891, for usurious interest collected of him in a foreclosure judgment, as the judgment negatived usury.

In this case the Greenwood Drug Company knew of the alleged fraud, if any existed, as the answer in the former action set up the said fraud but failed to allege the scienter; and in the second action the complaint alleged that “Soon after entering into said contract the plaintiff had reason to believe that it had been deceived and defrauded, etc.” Hence, this case cannot fall within the exception to the general rule. The plaintiff was not prevented from pleading fraud in the former action, but because of its defective plea certain evidence which it sought to' introduce on that subject was properly rejected. Such result followed from *520 the failure or neglect of the Greenwood. Drug Company to malee proper plea, and not from' any denial of the right to make, such issue. The judgment upon the contract necessarily involved an adjudication that the Bromonia Company had delivered to Greenwood Drug Company goods of value as alleged, 'and had incurred expense of advertising, according to contract, and necessarily implied that there was no want or failure or illegality of consideration in the contract enforced. To support the second action would necessarily assail and annul the correctness of the result in first action and give back to Greenwood Drug" Company the money it was adjudged' to pay therein, on the ground that the goods adjudged to be of value were really ■worthless, and on the ground that the contract adjudged to be a valid obligation was void for fraud, known at the time of the former judgment. It is apparent that the second action substantially involves the issues actually and impliedly involved in the first action, and it is of no consequenceothat the form of the second action was in toad, while the first action was in contract.

The appellant cites Kirven v. Chemical Co., 77 S. C., 494, 58 S. E., 424, as sustaining its contention.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
62 S.E. 840, 81 S.C. 516, 1908 S.C. LEXIS 282, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/greenwood-drug-co-v-bromonia-co-sc-1908.