Rush v. City of Maple Heights

167 Ohio St. (N.S.) 221
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 29, 1958
DocketNo. 35170
StatusPublished

This text of 167 Ohio St. (N.S.) 221 (Rush v. City of Maple Heights) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rush v. City of Maple Heights, 167 Ohio St. (N.S.) 221 (Ohio 1958).

Opinions

Herbert, J.

The eighth error assigned by the defendant is that “the trial and appellate courts committed error in permitting plaintiff to split her cause of action and to file a separate action in the Cleveland Municipal Court for her property damage and reduce same to judgment, and, thereafter, to proceed, in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, with a separate action for personal injuries, both claims arising out of a single accident.”

Other facets of this question have been before the court before.

In the case of Vasu v. Kohlers, Inc., 145 Ohio St., 321, 61 [225]*225N. E. (2d), 707, 166 A. L. R., 855, plaintiff operating an automobile came into collision with defendant’s truck, in which collision he suffered personal injuries and also damage to his automobile. At the time of collision, plaintiff had coverage of a $50 deductible collision policy on his automobile. The insurance company paid the plaintiff a sum covering the damage to his automobile, whereupon, in accordance with a provision of the policy, the plaintiff assigned to the insurer his claim for such damage.

In February 1942, the insurance company commenced an action in the Common Pleas Court of Mahoning County against Kohlers, Inc., the defendant in the reported case, to recoup the money paid by it to cover the damage to Vasu’s automobile.

In August 1942, Vasu commenced an action in the same court against Kohlers, Inc., to recover for personal injuries which he suffered in the same collision.

In March 1943, in the insurance company’s action, a verdict was rendered in favor of the defendant, followed by judgment.

Two months later an amended answer was filed in the Vasu case, setting out as a bar to the action for recovery of damages for the personal injuries suffered by plaintiff the judgment rendered in favor of defendant in the insurance company case. A motion to strike that defense having been sustained, a second amended answer was filed omitting allegations as to such judgment. A trial of the action resulted in a verdict for plaintiff, upon which judgment was entered.

On appeal to the Court of Appeals the defendant claimed that the Court of Common Pleas erred in sustaining plaintiff’s motion to strike from the defendant’s answer the defense of res judicata claimed to have arisen by reason of the judgment in favor of the defendant in the action by the insurance company.

The Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of the Court of Common Pleas and entered final judgment in favor of defendant.

This court reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeals, holding in the syllabus, in part, as follows:

“1. If the owner of a single cause of action arising out of [226]*226a single tortious act brings an action against Ms tort-feasor, he may have but one recovery; and, in case he fails to recover, he may not maintain a subsequent action on the same cause of action, even though he has failed to include his entire cause of action or elements of damage in his original action.

“2. If an owner of a single cause of action has a recovery thereon, the cause of action is merged in the judgment; but if he fails to recover on his claimed cause of action and judgment goes against him, such judgment is res judicata and a bar to a second action on the same cause of action.

< l * # #

“4. Injuries to both person and property suffered by the same person as a result of the same wrongful act are infringements of different rights and give rise to distinct causes of action, with the result that the recovery or denial of recovery of compensation for damages to the property is no bar to an action subsequently prosecuted for the personal injury, unless by an adverse judgment in the first action issues are determined against the plaintiff which operate as an estoppel against him in the second action.

“5. A right, question or fact in issue which was necessarily determined by a court of competent jurisdiction in a judgment which has become final, cannot be disputed or litigated in a subsequent suit between the same parties, although the subsequent suit is based upon a different cause of action.

“6. Where an injury to person and to property through a single wrongful act causes a prior contract of indemnity and subrogation as to the injury to property, to come into operation for the benefit of the person injured, the indemnitor may prosecute a separate action against the party causing such injury for reimbursement for indemnity moneys paid under such contract.

“7. Parties in privy, in the sense that they are bound by a judgment, are those who acquired an interest in the subject matter after the beginning of the action or the rendition of the judgment; and if their title or interest attached before that fact, they are not bound unless made parties.

“8. A grantor or assignor is not bound, as to third per[227]*227sons, by any judgment which such third persons may obtain against his grantee or assignee adjudicating the title to or claim for the interest transferred, unless he participated in the action in such manner as to become, in effect, a party.”

The foregoing syllabus is set forth at considerable length for subsequent reference herein. The first two paragraphs, although not pertinent there because of the fourth paragraph, are not only applicable but persuasive in our determination here. The sixth, seventh and eighth paragraphs deal with the factual situation which existed in the Vasu case, i. e., a prior contract of indemnity and subrogation. Although, as discussed infra, it was not actually necessary to the determination of the issue in that case, attention centers on the fourth paragraph.

The Vasu case was distinguished in the case of Markota v. East Ohio Gas Co., 154 Ohio St., 546, 97 N. E. (2d), 13, and explained in the case of Mansker v. Dealers Transport Co., 160 Ohio St., 255, 116 N. E. (2d), 3. In the Markota case, plaintiffs commenced an action for damages alleged to have been caused by the defendant in constructing and installing a pipeline over the plaintiffs’ premises. Plaintiffs and defendant had entered into a right of way agreement giving the defendant the right to lay, maintain and operate the pipeline, the defendant agreeing to reimburse, indemnify and save plaintiffs harmless from and against any loss, damage or expense in connection therewith.

Plaintiffs ’ amended petition had seven causes of action, each for damages resulting from injuries to plaintiffs’ property. Judgment was entered on the verdicts. The trial court granted a new trial on two causes of action, reducing the judgment by the amounts claimed in such causes of action. The question presented to this court was whether “the trial court erred in failing to grant a new trial in toto.” This court reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeals which had affirmed the judgment of the Court of Common Pleas.

The pertinent portion of the syllabus in that case,- decided by a unanimous court, is paragraph three:

“Although a right of action may arise at each time that damage covered by a single indemnity agreement occurs, a [228]*228plaintiff may maintain only one action to enforce any such rights existing at the time such action is commenced. (Vasu v. Kohlers, Inc.,

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Bluebook (online)
167 Ohio St. (N.S.) 221, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rush-v-city-of-maple-heights-ohio-1958.