Johanson v. Sondheim

4 Alaska 232
CourtDistrict Court, D. Alaska
DecidedOctober 10, 1910
DocketNo. 1020
StatusPublished

This text of 4 Alaska 232 (Johanson v. Sondheim) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johanson v. Sondheim, 4 Alaska 232 (D. Alaska 1910).

Opinion

OVERFIELD, District Judge.

The plea of res judicata is raised by the allegations in the -answer td the effect that plaintiff’s cause of action in this case was passed upon by this court, and afterwards by the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and judgment therein entered against the plaintiff herein. The parties are identical, and the same cause of action is here involved, though an attempt has been made to state, in the complaint, allegations which the appellate court found wanting in the former action.

In Johanson v. Sondheim & Dobbins, 145 Fed. 620, 76 C. C. A. 310, Gilbert, justice, said:

“If the complaint had alleged that, in consideration of their breach of their contract, the defendants in error undertook to transport the freight and passengers on the Oil City to Chena within a stipulated time, a different case would be presented.”

That is, instead of dismissing the action, as the appellate court sustained this court in doing, on the ground that there were not facts stated sufficient to constitute a cause of action against the defendant, a good cause of action would have been stated. The plaintiff herein, then, began a new suit. The complaint attempts obviously to make the allegations conform to the requirements referred to in the opinion of the appellate court, necessary to state a cause of action against the defendants.

[235]*235The defendants seek to apply the law of res judicata under these facts. The court is of opinion this contention is not well made under the facts herein presented; that when-a cause of action is dismissed on demurrer, on the ground that the complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, by reason of the omission of essential allegations, judgment following, and in a subsequent action the complaint supplies those essential allegations, the former judgment cannot be pleaded in bar. The reason is apparent, as stated in O’Hara v. Parker, 27 Or. 156, 39 Pac. 1004, that the merits of the case, as disclosed in the second complaint, were not heard and decided in the former suit.

The Supreme Court of the United States in Gould v. Evansville, 91 U. S. 526, 23 L. Ed. 416, states the law to be as follows :

“Decided eases may be found in which it is questioned whether a former judgment can be a bar to a subsequent action, even for the same cause, if it appears that the first judgment was rendered on demurrer; but it is settled law that it makes no difference in principle whether the facts upon which the court proceeded were proved by competent evidence, or whether they were admitted by the parties ; and that the admission, even if by way of demurrer to a pleading in which the facts are alleged is just as available to the opposite party as if the admission was made ore tenus before a jury. [Citing cases.] From these suggestions and authorities two propositions may be deduced, each of which has more or less application to certain views of the case before the court: First. That a judgment rendered upon demurrer to the declaration or to a material pleading, setting forth the facts, is equally conclusive of the matters confessed by the demurrer as a verdict finding the same racts would be, since the matters in controversy are established in the former case, as well as in the latter, by matter of record; and the rule is that facts thus established can never after be contested between the same parties or those in privity with them. Second. That if judgment is rendered for the defendant on demurrer to the declaration, or to a material pleading in chief, the plaintiff can never after maintain against the same defendant, or his privies, any similar or concurrent action for the same cause upon the same grounds as were disclosed in the first declaration, for the reason that the judgment upon such a demurrer determines the merits of the cause, and a final judgment deciding the right must put an end to the dispute, else the litigation would be endless. [Citing cases.] * * * • It is equally well settled that, if the plaintiff fails on demurrer in his first action from the omission of an essential allegation in his declaration which is fully supplied in the second suit, [236]*236the judgment in the first suit is no bar to the second, although the respective actions were instituted to enforce the saíne right, for the reason that the merits of the cause, as disclosed in the second declaration, were not heard and decided in the first action. [Citing cases.]”

It was likewise held in the case of City of North Muskegon v. Clark, 62 Fed. 694, 10 C. C. A. 591, Taft, justice:

“A demurrer to a declaration is an admission by the defendant that the facts stated in the declaration are true, and a submission to the court of the question whether, on those facts, the plaintiff is entitled to recover. If the demurrer is sustained, the decision of the court is one at law, namely, that, on the facts stated in the declaration, the plaintiff is not entitled to recover, and, if judgment goes upon the demurrer, the only issue which has been finally determined between the parties is this one of law. Such a judgment only estops the plaintiff from raising, in a second suit, the same question of law in the prosecution of the same cause of a.ction." It does not prevent him from prosecuting, the second.time, the same cause of action, provided he can and does allege, in his declaration, additional facts, so that its legal sufficiency to sustain a recovery does not depend on the question of law upon which the demurrer in the first case turned.”

In that case the complaint was bad for not alleging that the street or sidewalk on which the accident occurred was open for public travel. The declaration in the second suit contained such an averment. The question presented, therefore, was whether the judgment rendered against the plaintiff on the demurrer to a declaration, because it did not aver a fact essential, to recover, estops plaintiff from recovering in the same cause of action in the second suit, and where any declaration stating the cause of action does aver the essential fact previously admitted. The court held:

“We are clearly of the opinion that the first judgment is no bar to recovery in the second suit.”

The Circuit Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, discussed this question in the case of Lindsley v. Union Silver Star Mining Co., 115 Fed. 46, 52 C. C. A. 640. This was a case in which plaintiff, in a former action, alleged to have suffered damages sustained by reason of defendant’s having extracted ore from his mining claim. To the complaint the defendant interposed a demurrer on two grounds:

[237]*237“First, that the complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action; second, that the complaint was ambiguous, unintelligible, and uncertain, in that the description of the alleged Imperial lode claim, so far as the same was alleged to have been trespassed upon by the defendant, was uncertain and defective, and not alleged with sufficient certainty to enable an officer, upon execution, to identify the same, or to enable the court to determine the area alleged to be wrongfully in possession of defendant, or determine the area in conflict as between the parties plaintiff and defendant in its decree.”

This demurrer was sustained by the court. The plaintiff declined to amend, and the court dismissed the case.

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Related

Gould v. Evansville & Crawfordsville R. Co.
91 U.S. 526 (Supreme Court, 1876)
Cragin v. Lovell
109 U.S. 194 (Supreme Court, 1883)
Lovell v. Gragin
136 U.S. 130 (Supreme Court, 1890)
Johanson v. Sondheim
145 F. 620 (Ninth Circuit, 1906)
O'Hara v. Parker
39 P. 1004 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1895)
Lindsley v. Union Silver Star Min. Co.
115 F. 46 (Ninth Circuit, 1902)
City of North Muskegon v. Clark
62 F. 694 (Sixth Circuit, 1894)

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Bluebook (online)
4 Alaska 232, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johanson-v-sondheim-akd-1910.