Suggs v. Alabama Power Co.

• Decision Date: 08 September 1960
• Docket Number: 6 Div. 425
• Citation: 123 So.2d 4,271 Ala. 168
• Parties: John W. SUGGS v. ALABAMA POWER COMPANY et al.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Page 4

123 So.2d 4

271 Ala. 168

John W. SUGGS v. ALABAMA POWER COMPANY et al.

6 Div. 425.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

Sept. 8, 1960.

Higgins, Windham, Perdue & Johnson, Birmingham, for appellant.

Martin, Vogtle, Balch & Bingham and Harold Bowron, Jr., Birmingham, for appellees.

GOODWYN, Justice.

This is an appeal by the plaintiff in a tort action from a judgment of nonsuit induced by adverse rulings on pleadings.

For the purpose of resolving the questions presented on this appeal, the case may be stated concisely as follows:

A (employee) and B (A's employer) were injured in an accident involving the automobile being driven by A and owned by B and an automobile being driven by C and owned by D, who was C's employer. B brought suit against C and D to recover damages for her injuries, charging them with negligence. On the same day A brought a similar suit against C and D. B's suit then came on for trial. C and D, in defense of B's suit, pleaded the general issue in short by consent. The issues presented to the jury were as follows: (1) Whether C was negligent, (2) whether C was D's agent, servant or employee at the time of the accident and acting in the line and scope of his authority as such, (3) whether B was guilty of contributory negligence, (4) whether A was the agent, servant or employee of B at the time of the accident and acting in the line and scope of his authority as such, and, (5) if there should be a finding that A was such agent, servant or employee, whether A was guilty of contributory negligence. The jury returned a verdict in favor of B against C and D for $10,000 and judgment was rendered thereon.

A's suit then came on for trial. In that suit C and D filed pleas of the general issue and contributory negligence. A filed replications to said pleas to the effect that the issue of defendant's negligence had already been determined in B's suit; that at the time of the accident A was the agent or servant of B and acting in the line and scope of his authority as such, and, therefore, the question of A's negligence was also determined in B's suit; that, accordingly, the doctrine of res judicata or estoppel by judgment or verdict was applicable so as to deny to C and D the right to litigate again in A's suit the issues as to A's and defendants' negligence; that the only issue left to be resolved in A's suit was the amount of his damages.

C and D demurred to the replications. The demurrers were sustained. A declined to plead further and moved for a judgment of nonsuit because of said adverse rulings. The motion was granted and a judgment of nonsuit entered. A brings this appeal from that judgment, charging error in sustaining the demurrers.

We find no error in the trial court's rulings.

Appellant appears to have no quarrel with the general statement of the rule as set forth in Interstate Electric Co. v. Fidelity & Deposit Co. of Maryland, 228 Ala. 210, 212, 153 So. 427, 428, as follows:

'Broadly stated, the general rule is that to sustain a plea of this character, res adjudicata or estoppel by judgment, the parties must be the same, the subject-matter the same, the point must be directly in question, and the judgment must be rendered on that point. Hall & Farley v. Ala. Terminal & Imp. Co., 173 Ala. 398, 56 So. 235. And, as said in Clark v. Whitfield, 213 Ala. 441, 105 So. 200, 203, 'A judgment, to conclude either party as to the subject-matter, must be such as to work a mutual estoppel; hence a plea of res judicata, to be good, must show the parties litigant in the two suits are the same * * * or else they must be in privity of estate or blood or in law with the parties in such former action. * * * That is, a person who can claim the benefit of a judgment as an estoppel upon his adversary is one who would have been prejudiced by a contrary decision in the case.'

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'It is of course well settled also that a judgment is conclusive, not only upon those who were actual parties to the litigation, but also upon all persons who are in privity with them, defined by some of the authorities as 'a mutual or successive relationship to the same rights of property.' Bigelow v. Old Dominion Copper Mining & Smelting Co., 225 U.S. 111, 32 S.Ct. 641, 56 L.Ed. 1009, Ann.Cas.1913E, 875. And a discussion of the question of privity in 2 Black on Judgments, § 549, demonstrates the correctness of the observation of this court in Winston v. Westfeldt, 22 Ala. 760, 58 Am.Dec. 278, that, 'technically speaking, there can be no privity, where there is not an identity of interest,' meaning, as we understand it, identity of interest in the subject-matter of the litigation.'

The general rule is thus recognized in H. G. Hill Co. v. Taylor, 234 Ala. 282, 286, 174 So. 481, 484:

'* * * In Lawrence et al. v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 226 Ala. 161, 163, 145 So. 577, it was held that in order for the judgment in the prior suit to render the question in a subsequent suit res adjudicata, the same issues of fact must have been involved, within issues pleaded or which ought to have been litigated, between the same parties or privies, and applied to the parties or privies at the time of the rendition of that judgment. Such is the generally accepted rule, as we indicated in Crowson v. Cody, 215 Ala. 150, 153, 110 So. 46; Cobbs v. Norville et al., 227 Ala. 621, 151 So. 576; Dunn v. Ponceler et al., 230 Ala. 375, 161 So. 450. * * *'

It is appellant's position that this is a case of first impression in Alabama and we should hold that it comes within an exception to the general rule to be here announced for the first time. It is argued that since A was B's agent, servant or employee and acting in the line and scope of his authority as such at the time of the accident, the issue as to A's negligence was determined in B's suit. But that is not necessarily so. Although A's replications allege that he was B's agent, servant or employee, there is nothing to indicate that the jury in B's suit necessarily resolved the issue as to A's negligence. It might well be that the jury, in finding for B, determined that A was not B's agent, servant or employee, or, if his agent, servant or employee, he was not acting in the line and scope of his authority as such. In that event there would have been no occasion for the jury to determine whether A was or was not negligent, for A's negligence would not have been imputable to B. In this situation, we see no need to discuss further the argument made by appellant insofar as A's negligence is concerned. It should be made clear that we do not intend, by anything said, to indicate a holding, or an inclination to hold, that the doctrine of res judicata, including estoppel by judgment or verdict, or an exception thereto, would be available to A even if there had been a specific and conclusive finding in B's suit that A was not negligent. We simply do not reach that point for...