Power & Irrigation Co. of Clear Lake v. Springe

248 F. 236, 160 C.C.A. 314, 1918 U.S. App. LEXIS 1422
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided February 4, 1918·No. No. 2956·Published

Opinion

ROSS, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). To determine whether the judgment in the ejectment action is a bar to the present one, it is necessary to see what was involved, litigated, and decided in the former. The law upon the subject is well settled. In the case of Cromwell v. County of Sac, 94 U. S. 351, 352, 24 L. Ed. 195, which was an action on certain bonds of the county and on certain interest coupons attached to them, to which action the defendant pleaded as an estoppel a judgment rendered in favor of the county in a prior action brought by another holder of certain earlier maturing coupons on the same bonds, accompanied with proof that the plaintiff Cromwell was at the time the owner of the coupons in that action, and that it was prosecutedi for his sole use and benefit, the court, in considering the operation of the judgment so pleaded, said:

“It should, be borne in mind, as stated by counsel, that there is a difference between the effect of a judgment as a bar or estoppel against the prosecution of a second action upon the same claim or demand, and its effect as an estoppel in another action between the same parties upon a different claim or cause of action. In the former case, the judgment, if rendered upon the merits, constitutes an absolute bar to a subsequent action. It is a finality as to the claim or demand in controversy, concluding parties and those in privity with them, not only as to every matter which was offered and received to sustain or defeat the claim or demand, but as to any other admissible matter which might have been offered for that purpose. Thus, for example, a judgment rendered upon a promissory note is conclusive as to the validity of the instrument and the amount due upon it, although it be subsequently alleged that perfect defenses actually existed, of which no proof was offered, such as forgery, want of consideration, or payment. If such defenses were not presented in the action and established by competent evidence, the subsequent allegation of their existence is of no legal consequence. The judgment is as conclusive, so far as future proceedings at law are concerned, as though the defenses never existed. The language, therefore, which is so often used, that a judgment estops not only as to every ground of rcovery or defense actually presented in the action, but also as to every ground which might have been presented, is strictly accurate, when applied to the demand or claim in controversy. Such demand or claim, having passed into judgment, cannot again be brought into litigation between the parties in proceedings at law upon any ground whatever. But where the second action between the 'same parties is upon a different claim or demand, the judgment in the prior action operates as an estoppel only as to those matters in issue or points controverted, upon the determination of which the finding or verdict was rendered. In all cases, therefore, where it is sought to apply the estoppel of a judgment rendered upon one cause of action to matters arising in a suit upon a different cause of action, the inquiry must always be as to the point or question actually litigated and determined in the original action, not what might-have been thus litigated and determined. Only upon such matters) is the judgment conclusive in another action.”

[239] In Landon v. Clark et al., 221 Fed. 841, 137 C. C. A. 399, the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that to render a judgment conclusive in a subsequent action between the same parties, or their privies, but on a different cause of action, it must appear upon the record of the prior suit that the particular matter sought to be concluded was necessarily tried and determined, citing a number of cases in support of its ruling which need not be here specifically referred to. Indeed, such is embodied in the law of California by section 1911 of its Code of Civil Procedure, which reads:

“That only is deemed to have fceen adjudged in a former judgment which appear;; upon its face to have heen so adjudged, or which was actually and necessarily included therein or necessary thereto.”

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Power & Irrigation Co. of Clear Lake v. Springe, 248 F. 236, 160 C.C.A. 314, 1918 U.S. App. LEXIS 1422 (9th Cir. 1918).

248 F. 236 (Power & Irrigation Co. of Clear Lake v. Springe) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Cromwell v. County of Sac
94 U.S. 351 (Supreme Court, 1877)
Landon v. Clark
221 F. 841 (Second Circuit, 1915)