Peare v. Griggs
| Decision Date | 19 May 1960 |
| Citation | 167 N.E.2d 734,201 N.Y.S.2d 326,8 N.Y.2d 44 |
| Parties | , 167 N.E.2d 734 Celia D. PEARE, as Administratrix of the Estate of Samuel G. Peare, Deceased, Appellant, v. Jerry C. GRIGGS et al., Doing Business as Griggs Trucking Company, Respondents. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Bennett E. Aron, Jack F. Weiss and Harry Zeitlan, New York City, for appellant.
William F. McNulty and Stanley D. Hicks, New York City, for respondents.
In this action a judgment was awarded plintiff, after trial, for the wrongful death of her husband, who was killed in Virginia when the car he was driving collided with a tractor-trailer owned by defendants and operated by one of their employees. The Appellate Division reversed on the ground that a judgment in favor of defendants herein as plaintiffs in a Virginia property damage action wherein this plaintiff was a party defendant in both her individual and representative capacities was res judicata.
The decretal part of the letters of administration issued to plaintiff by the Surrogate's Court of Bronx County expressly authorized her 'to administer the estate of the deceased', subject of course to its jurisdiction and supervision, and the only limitation upon her authority as administratrix was that she could not compromise the wrongful death action or enforce a judgment obtained therein until the further order of the court (see Surrogate's Court Act, § 122). Plaintiff did, in fact, appear, litigate and appeal to the court of last resort in Virginia in her capacity as 'administratrix', and, since decedent died intestate, she appeared for identically the same persons as administratrix of the estate as she did as statutory trustee (Decedent Estate Law, Consol.Laws, c. 13, § 83, subd. 1; §§ 133, 134; 1950 Code of Virginia, Vol. 2, § 8-636), namely, herself as widow and her three minor children.
Under Virginia law, which is controlling here (Baldwin v. Powell, 294 N.Y. 130, 132, 61 N.E.2d 412; Hinchey v. Sellers, 7 N.Y.2d 287, 295-296, 197 N.Y.S.2d 129, 134-135), it was decedent whom she represented, whether acting as administratrix of the general estate or as statutory trustee (Hoffman v. Stuart, 188 Va. 785, 793, 51 S.E.2d 239, 6 A.L.R.2d 247), since the Virginia wrongful death statutes do not create a new and original cause of action as does the New York statute 'but simply continue, transmit, or substitute the right to sue which the decedent had until his death' (Street v. Consumers Mining Corporation, 185 Va. 561, 570, 39 S.E.2d 271, 274, 167 A.L.R. 886; see, also, Brammer v. Norfolk & Western Ry. Co., 107 Va. 206, 213-214, 57 S.E. 593). Plaintiff had every reason to appear in the Virginia action in her representative...
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Berner v. British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines, Ltd.
...Sellers, 7 N.Y. 2d 287, 295-296, 197 N.Y.S.2d 129, 133- 134, 165 N.E.2d 156, 160-161 (1959). Compare Peare v. Griggs, 8 N.Y.2d 44, 47, 201 N.Y.S.2d 326, 327, 167 N.E.2d 734, 735 (1960). But see Restatement (Second), Conflict of Laws § 430a (Tent. Draft No. 10, 1964). New York does not permi......
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B. R. DeWitt, Inc. v. Hall
...by the judgment in that action when the same issue is presented by someone not a party to the earlier action. In Peare v. Griggs (8 N.Y.2d 44, 201 N.Y.S.2d 326, 167 N.E.2d 734), we repeated that a prior judgment, encompassing issues upon which a party has had a full day in court, binds that......
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Goldberg's Estate, In re
...appeared and litigated the matter in the foreign court on the merits. See Leighton v. Roper, supra; Peare v. Griggs Trucking Co., 8 N.Y.2d 44, 201 N.Y.S.2d 326, 167 N.E.2d 734. But see, Matter of Gantt, 286 App.Div. 212, 215, 141 N.Y.S.2d 738, 741. It is not necessary, however, to pass on t......
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