Avant v. Hammond Jones, Inc.
| Decision Date | 06 April 1955 |
| Citation | 79 So.2d 423 |
| Parties | W. E. AVANT, Appellant, v. HAMMOND JONES, Inc., Appellee. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Surles & Trawick and Henry P. Trawick, Jr., Lakeland, for appellant.
E. Snow Martin, Lakeland, for appellee.
We give in abridged form the salient facts as they appear in the pleadings in the replevin and trover actions between the appellant and the appellee, and in the affidavits considered by the judge in connection with a motion for summary judgment in the latter.
The appellee brought an action in replevin to recover from the appellant eight trucks which had been sold by the appellee to the appellant by a retain-title contract stating that the property included 'all parts, tires, or accessories now on or subsequently placed thereon * * *.' After the appellant took possession of the trucks a spreader was welded to four of them. When the property was taken by authority of the writ of replevin and eventually delivered to the plaintiff, appellee, by virtue of the final judgment, the spreaders were still welded to the four trucks.
The appellant offered no defense whatever to the complaint in replevin; on the contrary he suffered a default judgment to by entered against him.
Several months after the entry of the final judgment the appellant instituted the present action in which he charged that the appellee had converted the spreaders to its own use and he claimed damages for the conversion.
The judge, upon the motion for summary judgment, held that all matters undertaken to be presented in the later, trover, action could have been litigated in the former, replevin, action and that the judgment, therefore, constituted res judicata. We agree with the judge's ultimate decision, although we think the situation is one bringing into play the doctrine of estoppel by judgment. The distinction between the two has recently received the attention of the Court, in Gordon v. Gordon, Fla., 59 So.2d 40; Donahue v. Davis, Fla., 68 So.2d 163, and Universal Const. Co. v. City of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., 68 So.2d 366. As was pointed out in the second cited case, there are four conditions peculiar to res judicata: identity of the thing, the cause of action, the parties, and the quality in the person for or against whom the claim is made. The purpose of both principles is the same, to bring litigation to an end. In the first cited case we said that res judicata barred a later suit between the same parties upon...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
In re Wald
...However, the true basis for the court's holding may have been res judicata. Masciarelli relies for its holding on Avant v. Hammond Jones Inc., 79 So.2d 423 (Fla.1955), a case which enunciates a collateral estoppel analysis, but defines collateral estoppel in terms of res judicata. For examp......
-
In re Nourbakhsh
...However, the true basis for the court's holding may have been res judicata. Masciarelli relies for its holding on Avant v. Hammond Jones Inc., 79 So.2d 423 (Fla.1955), a case which enunciates a collateral estoppel analysis, but defines collateral estoppel in terms of res judicata. For examp......
-
In re Shiver
...has been `fully litigated' under Florida law.") Based on a thorough analysis of Florida state court decisions, including Avant v. Hammond Jones, 79 So.2d 423 (Fla.1955) and Masciarelli v. Maco Supply Corp., 224 So.2d 329 (Fla.1969), Judge Mark concluded that "the Florida Supreme Court held ......
-
In re Zoernack
...re-litigating questions common to two causes of action when those questions were actually decided in the first. Avant v. Hammond Jones, Inc., 79 So.2d 423, 423-424 (Fla.1955). The underlying rationale behind the doctrine of res judicata is that the "full and fair opportunity to litigate pro......
-
Legal theories & defenses
..., 448 So.2d 566 (Fla. 2d DCA 1984). 2. Youngblood v. Taylor, 89 So.2d 503, 505 (Fla. 1956). 3. W. E. Avant v. Hammond Jones, Inc. , 79 So.2d 423, 424 (Fla. 1955). 4. Donahue v. Davis, 68 So.2d 163, 169 (Fla. 1953). §18:180.1.1 Elements — 1st DCA Under the doctrine of res judicata, a subsequ......