Springer v. Bien

27 Abb. N. Cas. 213
CourtNew York Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 15, 1891
StatusPublished

This text of 27 Abb. N. Cas. 213 (Springer v. Bien) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Springer v. Bien, 27 Abb. N. Cas. 213 (N.Y. 1891).

Opinion

Andrews, J.

The sole point relates to the effect of the judgment in the former action of the present defendants against the present plaintiff and others, as res adjudicata upon the question involved in this action.

This action is based upon an alleged employment of the plaintiff by the defendants under a contract that he was to act as their agent in procuring orders for their [214]*214work, and was to receive as compensation ten per cent, on all money realized by their firm from orders so procured. The relief demanded was an accounting by the defendants of moneys received by them subsequent to-March 4, 1889, on orders obtained b}' the plaintiff before-he left their employment, but upon which the moneys, were not realized until after that time.

The defendants in their answer do not deny specifically the contract alleged in the complaint, but set up among other defences the judgment in the prior action as a bar to the claim in the present one.

The former action was brought to restrain the use by the defendants therein of the name of “The Central Lithographing and Engraving Company ” in the business of a corporation organized under that name by Springer and others after Springer had left the employment’ of the defendants. The plaintiffs in that action claimed the name as their trade-mark and that they were exclusively entitled to its use. After issue joined 1 the case was heard before a judge at special term, who,, after the evidence was closed, made findings of fact and law, upon which judgment was entered for the plaintiffs therein, among other things enjoining the defendants from using the name of “The Central Engraving and Lithographing Company and the judgment contained a further provision requiring the defendants and each of them to account to the plaintiffs for all contracts, letters or other property which may have been obtained by the defendant, John H. Springer, as the agent of the plaintiffs in the name of “ The Central Lithographing and Engraving Company,” and for such purpose William J. Fanning was appointed referee-to take and state the account. The claim is that this judgment is res adjudicata upon the claim for compensation upon which this action is brought. It is said that on the trial of the former action evidence was given as to the terms of the contract for compensation, [215]*215from which it appeared that the ten per cent, commission was only to be paid upon moneys received by the defendants on orders placed by Springer during his employment by Bien & Co., and that moneys received thereafter on orders procured by Springer, but which were unexecuted when his employment ceased, were not subject to the commission.

We are also referred to certain findings made by the trial judge in the former action, which, as claimed, sustain this construction of the contract. It is a sufficient answer to the claim of estoppel by the former judgment, that conceding that the evidence in that action warranted a finding that the present plaintiff was only to have commissions on moneys actually received during his employment, and that the findings bear the construction contended for, nevertheless they were wholly irrelevant to the issues and did not enter into and were not involved in the final judgment.

Neither the verdict of a jury nor the findings of a court in a prior action upon the precise point involved in a subsequent action between the same parties, constitute a bar unless followed by a judgment based thereon, or into which the verdict or finding entered. It is the judgment which constitutes the bar and not the preliminary determination of the court or jury. So also, and for obvious reasons, although judgment has been entered, the judgment does not prevent the relitigation of any irrelevant fact, although it may have been litigated and found in the prior action (Webb v. Buckelew, 82 N. Y. 555 ; Stannard v. Hubbell, 123 Id. 528).

The question whether the contract for compensation included commissions on all orders procured by the plaintiff during his employment, upon which moneys should be realized by the defendants at any time, or only on orders procured, upon which money [216]*216was realized during the employment, was immaterial to the judgment and relief granted.

The accounting provided by the judgment did not embrace the matter of compensation and that question was still open, notwithstanding the judgment, to subsequent controversy. The claim now made is not inconsistent with any matter adjudged in the former action, although it may have been covered by the evidence and embraced in the findings.

We think the defense of res adjudicata was properly disposed of below, and the order should therefore be affirmed.

All the judges concurred except Finch, J., absent.

Note on the Effect of a Verdict, or Findings, and the Judgment thereon, as res judicata available IN ANOTHER ACTION.

I. The general principle.] Several practical inferences from the case in the text are important. First, that even if the parties settle, upon the heels of a verdict or decision, it is wise to have a judgment entered unless adequate releases are taken. Second, that when judgment is entered on a verdict, or findings after a trial on which all the issues arising on the pleadings were not determined, or upon a decision which contains findings not essential to the judgment (whicli will be often the case under the rule in Schultheis v. Mclnernjq p. 193 of this vol.) it is often for the interest of the unsuccessful party to have the judgment expressly limited to the findings essential to sustain it.

There is a class of cases in which a judgment may be a bar on questions not touched by any finding, and not within the issues on the cause, as where a former recovery for part of a cause of action bars a recovery for the residue, or as where a second action on the same cause proposes to take issue on, and try questions, that might have been but were not raised in the first action (Cromwell v. Count of Soc. 94 U. S. 351; Ostrander v. Campbell, 20 State. Rep. 806 s. c. 3 N. Y. Supp. 597).

In reading the authorities on res judicata, a principal source of apparent conflict is at once avoided by bearing in mind this radical distinction, not mentioned on the statement of the general rule in the opinion in the text, between an adjudication in a second action for the same cause or [217]*217perhaps I should say on the same cause or theory of action, and a second action upon a distinct cause, although it may be upon facts arising out of the same transaction. Where both actions are for the same cause, the effect of judgment in the former extends beyond the actual questions found or even litigated to include all that ought to have been litigated. While if the actions are for different causes, as in the case in the text, the adjudication in the former extends only to the findings material to the judgment or such parts of them as are material thereto ; and questions actually in issue and covered by the findings are not within the adjudication unless material to support it.

II. Verdict or finditigs without judgment?^ The general rule that a verdict without judgment thereon is not res judicata, is subject to several exceptions which throw light on the rule as to the effect of findings of a judge or referee.

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Related

Cromwell v. County of Sac
94 U.S. 351 (Supreme Court, 1877)
Stannard v. . Hubbell
25 N.E. 1084 (New York Court of Appeals, 1890)
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25 N.Y. 613 (New York Court of Appeals, 1862)
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Hayes v. . Nourse
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Webb v. . Buckelew
82 N.Y. 555 (New York Court of Appeals, 1880)
O'Hara v. . State of New York
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Hymes v. . Estey
22 N.E. 1087 (New York Court of Appeals, 1889)
Lorillard v. . Clyde
1 N.E. 614 (New York Court of Appeals, 1885)
Outwater v. . Moore
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Pray v. . Hegeman
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Gilpatrick v. Glidden
19 A. 166 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1889)
In re Estate of Holbert
57 Cal. 257 (California Supreme Court, 1881)
Ostrander v. Campbell
3 N.Y.S. 597 (New York Supreme Court, 1889)
Shaw v. Broadbent
7 N.Y.S. 293 (New York Supreme Court, 1889)
Taylor v. Taylor
7 N.Y.S. 880 (New York Supreme Court, 1889)
Buhler v. Hubbell
10 N.Y.S. 254 (New York Supreme Court, 1890)
Henderson v. Kohn
10 N.Y.S. 823 (New York Supreme Court, 1890)
Springer v. Bien
10 N.Y.S. 530 (New York Court of Common Pleas, 1890)
Hadcock v. O'Rowke
4 N.Y.S. 185 (Superior Court of Buffalo, 1888)

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Bluebook (online)
27 Abb. N. Cas. 213, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/springer-v-bien-ny-1891.