Skoglund v. Staab, 12155

• Decision Date: 10 August 1978
• Docket Number: No. 12155,12155
• Citation: 269 N.W.2d 401
• Parties: Alden SKOGLUND and Delores Skoglund, Plaintiffs and Respondents, v. Vernnena STAAB, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: South Dakota Supreme Court

Page 401

269 N.W.2d 401

Alden SKOGLUND and Delores Skoglund, Plaintiffs and Respondents, v. Vernnena STAAB, Defendant and Appellant.

No. 12155.

Supreme Court of South Dakota.

Aug. 10, 1978.

E. Steeves Smith of Tinan, Padrnos, Smith & Saukerson, Mitchell, for plaintiffs and respondents.

Wally Eklund of Johnson, Johnson & Eklund, Gregory, William J. Srstka, Jr. of Duncan, Olinger, Srstka, Maher & Lovald, Pierre, for defendant and appellant.

WOLLMAN, Justice.

This is the second time these parties have been before this court. In Staab v. Skoglund, S.D., 234 N.W.2d 45, we remanded to the trial court for entry of judgment to the effect that an executory contract existed between the parties for the sale of the land in question. We refer to that opinion for a statement of the factual background giving rise to this dispute.

Perhaps in response to our gratuitous comment in that opinion that a subsequent law suit on the executory contract would no doubt result on remand, respondents vendees in the executory contract for deed, brought this action for specific performance against appellant, the vendor. Appellant alleged the defenses of breach of contract, statute of limitations, laches, and estoppel and counterclaimed for rescission and for damages arising out of respondents' unlawful possession of the land. The trial court interpreted our opinion in the earlier case, together with the judgment entered on remand, as finally determining the issue of the enforceability of the contract. Accordingly, the trial court denied appellant's offer of proof with respect to her defense that respondents had breached the payment provisions of the contract and entered judgment decreeing specific performance of the contract. We reverse and remand for trial on the issues raised in appellant's answer and counterclaim.

Respondents contend that the doctrine of res judicata bars appellant from litigating the issues raised in her answer and counterclaim. We do not agree. The general principles of the doctrine of res judicata were outlined by this court in Keith v. Willers Truck Service, 64 S.D. 274, 266 N.W. 256, as follows:

First, a final judgment or decree of a court of competent jurisdiction upon the merits is a bar to any future action between the same parties or their privies upon the same cause of action so long as it remains unreversed; and, second, a point which was actually and directly in issue in a former action and was there judicially passed upon and determined by a domestic court of competent jurisdiction cannot be drawn in question in any future action between the same parties or their privies whether the cause of action in the two actions be identical or different. Black on Judgments (2d Ed.), vol. 2, § 504. Under the first rule the res which is judicata is the cause of action. Under the second, the res which may be judicata is the particular issue or fact common to both actions. 64 S.D. at 276, 266 N.W. at 257.

See also Carr v. Preslar, 73 S.D. 610, 47 N.W.2d 497, and Raschke v. DeGraff, 81 S.D. 291, 134 N.W.2d 294.

In Golden v. Oahe Enterprises, Inc., S.D., 240 N.W.2d 102, and Gottschalk v. South Dakota Real Estate Commission, S.D., 264 N.W.2d 905, we held that the doctrine of res judicata was not applicable to bar the causes of action there involved because they were different from those litigated in the prior actions. Applying the test set forth in Golden and Gottschalk, we conclude that the same result should obtain here. As rather murkily raised by respondents' pleadings and trial motions in the first case, the issue that we held was raised and litigated before the trial court was whether there existed an enforceable executory contract for the sale of the land in question. This was the "right," to use the words of...