Messinger v. New England Mut Life Ins Co.

• Decision Date: 15 January 1894
• Docket Number: 16.
• Citation: 59 F. 416
• Parties: MESSINGER v. NEW ENGLAND MUT. LIFE INS. CO.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Pennsylvania

59 F. 416

MESSINGER v. NEW ENGLAND MUT. LIFE INS. CO.

No. 16.

United States Circuit Court, W.D. Pennsylvania.

January 15, 1894

D. W. Cox, Lorenzo Everett, and S. C. McCandless, for complainant.

A. A. Leiser and Shiras & Dickey, for defendant.

BUFFINGTON, District Judge.

A bill in equity is here filed by I. N. Messinger, administrator d. b. n. of Joseph C. Raudenbush, against the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company, to cancel and rescind a release executed by a former administrator of all claims under a policy issued by the respondent company upon the life of said decedent. To this bill a plea is filed, setting forth that a final decree had been entered in favor of the respondent (which was unappealed from) in a suit in this court, at No. 34, November term, 1892, between the same parties, and involving the same subject-matter. In the former case the respondent demurred to the bill because it did not disclose facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, which demurrer was sustained by the court; and subsequently, no application to amend being made, a final decree was entered, dismissing the bill. Such a decree is a final judgment of the rights of the parties, and is a bar to a subsequent suit between the same parties on the same subject-matter. Alley v. Nott, 111 U.S. 473, 4 S.Ct. 495; Bissell v. Spring Valley Tp., 124 U.S. 232, 8 S.Ct. 495.

The parties to the present suit, and the subject-matter, being the same as those in the former suit, we are of opinion the plea is well founded, in point of law, and presents a complete defense to the bill, and the latter should be dismissed.