Hays v. Lundy
| Decision Date | 26 March 1943 |
| Parties | Hays v. Lundy et al. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
2. Courts; Judgment. — In action in state court to quiet title against a coal company and an individual, wherein company subsequently filed suit in federal court against plaintiff and individual defendant and others, relating to same land, and wherein individual by counterclaim in state court suit attempted to institute an action against company concerning same subject matter, but wherein no summons was issued, no controversy existed in state court between individual and company until date company filed its plea in abatement, and where, previous to that time, individual had entered her appearance in federal court, such court acquired jurisdiction and its judgment rendered therein was "res judicata" of issues in state court suit.
3. Judgment. — Where federal court acquires jurisdiction and adjudicates the issue, state court will recognize and give full force to the judgment of the federal court.
Appeal from Knox Circuit Court.
J. Milton Luker, James M. Hays and Richard A. Hays for appellant.
E.L. Stephens and H.C. Gillis for appellee.
Before B.B. Snyder, Special Judge.
Affirming.
The petition in this action was filed by Delia T. Lundy against Minerva Frances Hays and the Gatliff Coal Company on the 27th day of January, 1941, wherein plaintiff sought to have quieted her title to ten acres of land. Summons issued and was served on the Gatliff Coal Company on February 10, 1941, and Miss Hays entered her appearance by attending the taking of depositions and cross examining plaintiff's witnesses on February 12, 1941. On February 26, 1941, the coal company filed a motion to require the plaintiff to make her petition more definite and certain. On March 11, 1941, the coal company filed a bill of complaint in the United States District Court for the eastern district of Kentucky against Misses Hays and Lundy and Miss Hays' father, James M. Hays, wherein the complainant sought a determination by the court of the proper location of three patents through which respectively the parties claimed the same land. On March 29, 1941, Miss Hays filed a pleading in this action which she styled answer and counterclaim. In this pleading she attempted to institute an action against the coal company concerning the subject matter of the suit in Federal Court. No summons was ever issued on the "counterclaim." On March 22, 1941, Miss Hays entered her appearance in the suit in the Federal Court by filing an answer pleading in abatement the pendency of this action in the Knox circuit court. On July 5, 1941, the coal company filed answer to Miss Lundy's petition in this action and entered a plea in abatement as to the counterclaim of Miss Hays because of the pendency of the action in the Federal Court. Miss Hays' plea in abatement in the Federal Court was overruled, the case set for trial, and judgment entered September 17, 1941, in favor of the coal company. After the entry of that judgment, the coal company filed in this action an amended answer and plea in abatement pleading the judgment of the Federal Court in bar of Miss Hays' right to recover. Upon...
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