Thal v. Krawitz

• Decision Date: 22 May 1950
• Parties: THAL v. KRAWITZ et al.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

73 A.2d 376

365 Pa. 110

THAL v. KRAWITZ et al.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

May 22, 1950

Argued April 19, 1950

Appeal, No. 92, Jan. T., 1950, from order of Court of Common Pleas No. 2 (Transferred to Court of Common Pleas No. 1) of Philadelphia County, March T., 1946, No. 1816, in case of Charles Thal v. Myron J. Krawitz et al. Order affirmed.

Assumpsit.

Order entered denying motion for judgment, opinion per curiam. Defendants appealed.

Order affirmed.

Milford J. Meyer, with him Samuel Kravitz and Meyer, Lasch, Hankin & Poul, for appellants.

Before DREW, C.J., STERN, STEARNE, JONES and BELL, JJ. Abraham Wernick, with him Hyman Shane, for appellee

OPINION

MR. JUSTICE JONES

This is the defendants' second appeal in this case from a refusal of a motion for judgment on the pleadings. The opinion of Mr Justice LINN on the former appeal (361 Pa. 178, 63 A.2d 33) contains the following succinct statement of presently pertinent facts: "Charles Thal, in 1944 leased certain premises in Philadelphia from Myron J. Krawitz and Minnie R. Krawitz with an option to buy them. Myron J. Krawitz held the title in trust for himself, his mother, Minnie, and two brothers, Leonard and Lester, then in the Army. When Thal called for performance of the option, defendants refused to convey. Thal then filed a bill for specific performance in Common Pleas No. 1. Defendants answered. The case was tried on the merits by Judge McDEVITT who decided the controlling issue in favor of defendants. That issue was whether at the time defendants Krawitz were authorized to bind Lester and Leonard Krawitz. The bill was dismissed; no appeal was taken and the decree became final."

Subsequently, Thal brought this action in assumpsit (sic) for damages allegedly suffered by the plaintiff in relying upon false and fraudulent representations of the defendants Krawitz (Myron and Minnie) that they were authorized to enter into the option agreement in behalf of the absent trust beneficiaries (Lester and Leonard). The defendants answered and, under new matter, pleaded that the alleged misrepresentations, relied upon by the plaintiff in the instant action, had been concluded against him by the findings of the chancellor in the suit for specific performance, the record in that proceeding being made part of the answer by express reference. The defendants thereupon moved for judgment on the pleadings. The learned court below, mistakenly conceiving that the record in the equity suit (which the plaintiff's reply did not dispute) was not properly before the court, denied the motion without considering or passing upon the defendants' pleas of res judicata or collateral estoppel. On the defendants' appeal from the action of the court below, we held that, as the record in the equity suit was properly a part of the pleadings in the case (see Rule 1019(g) Pa. R.C.P.), "The defendant is entitled to a speedy determination of this issue before he is put to a defense on the merits"; and, accordingly, we reversed. The practice in such regard now obtaining at law under the procedural rules accords with the earlier equity practice: cf. Jones v. Costlow, 354 Pa. 245, 250-251, 47 A.2d 259.

Upon the remand of the case, the defendants renewed their motion for judgment on the pleadings. The court below again denied the motion but, this time, on the ground that the fact adjudicated in the equity proceeding, namely, that the defendants had not made the misrepresentations alleged by the plaintiff, was not essential to the decree of dismissal entered in that proceeding and, therefore, was not binding on the plaintiff in the present action. This second appeal by the defendants followed.

The question involved is not one of res judicata. Several of the identities between the former and present action, requisite to a plea of res judicata (see Bennett, Trustee v Erwin, 325 Pa. 330, 333, 189 A. 675), are wanting. The matter involves, rather, a question of collateral estoppel. "Where a question of fact essential to the judgment is actually litigated and determined by a valid and final judgment, the determination is conclusive between the parties in a subsequent action on a different cause of action...": Restatement, Judgments, § 68. This rule is applicable to suits in equity as well as actions at law: comment j. of § 68 of the Restatement, cit. supra. As the wording of the above-quoted rule from the Restatement indicates, it is "applicable only where the facts determined are essential to the judgment [or decree, as the...