Opinion ID: 1638061
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Res Judicata is Applicable to Bowling and Baze's Administrative Procedure Act Claim and Bars Their Second Declaratory Judgment Action

Text: Appellants responded to the June 19, 2008 Order directing supplemental briefing with a contention that res judicata and its related doctrines of claim preclusion and the rule against splitting causes of action should have no bearing on this case because, as affirmative defenses pursuant to CR 8.03, those matters were waived when the Department failed to raise them in the first responsive pleading. Certainly, as a general rule, failure to assert timely an affirmative defense waives that defense and precludes its consideration by the trial court and this Court. Watts v. K, S & H, 957 S.W.2d 233 (Ky. 1997). Nevertheless, this rule does not preclude courts from raising the issue of res judicata or its related doctrines sua sponte in a declaratory judgment action. KRS 418.065 recognizes the broad rights accorded courts in declaratory judgment actions: The court may refuse to exercise the power to declare rights, duties or other legal relations in any case where a decision under it would not terminate the uncertainty or controversy which gave rise to the action, or in any case where the declaration or construction is not necessary or proper at the time under all the circumstances. The appellate court in its consideration of the case, shall not be confined to errors alleged or apparent in the record. When, in its opinion, further pleadings or proof is necessary to a final and correct decision of the matters involved, or that should be involved, it shall remand the case for that purpose; or if in its opinion the action is prematurely brought, or where a ruling in the appellate court is not considered necessary or proper at the time under all the circumstances, it may direct a dismissal without prejudice in the lower court. The first sentence of this statute allows the trial court to decline to exercise its jurisdiction when it is not necessary or proper at the time under all the circumstances, a firm basis for invoking sua sponte an overlooked legal doctrine such as res judicata. The second sentence provides that appellate courts shall not be confined to errors alleged or apparent in the record and, thus, gives appellate courts similar discretion to apply controlling law regardless of whether it has been raised by the litigants or addressed by the trial court in a declaratory judgment action. Rea v. Gallatin County Fiscal Court, 422 S.W.2d 134 (Ky.1967). These specific provisions applicable only in declaratory judgment actions should not be viewed as a judicial safety net, relieving litigants of the need to consider carefully their responsive pleadings, but they indisputably allow both trial and appellate courts to reach those issues deemed necessary for proper resolution of a declaratory judgment action. Accordingly, if otherwise relevant, res judicata may be applied in a declaratory judgment action despite a failure to raise the defense affirmatively in a responsive pleading. Finally, there is nothing unreasonable about a court raising such potentially dispositive issues when the parties, as here, have been given a full opportunity to address those issues, through briefs and oral arguments. Substantively, res judicata applies to bar consideration of a claim that was, or could have been, brought in prior litigation between the parties. This elementary rule has been long-honored in Kentucky jurisprudence. The rule is elementary that, when a matter is in litigation, parties are required to bring forward their whole case; and `the plea of res judicata applies not only to the points upon which the court was required by the parties to form an opinion and pronounce judgment, but to every point which properly belonged to the subject of litigation, and which the parties, exercising reasonable diligence, might have brought forward at the time.' Davis v. McCorkle, 77 Ky. [14 Bush] 746 (1879); Williams v. Rogers, 77 Ky. [14 Bush] 776 (1879); Hardwicke v. Young, [110 Ky. 504] 62 S.W. 10 (1901). Combs v. Prestonsburg Water Co., 260 Ky. 169, 84 S.W.2d 15, 18 (1935). Drawing on these ancient cases, the Combs court concluded the rule that forbids parties from asserting rights or defenses by sporadic piecemeal precludes them from asserting again anything incident to, and necessarily connected with, the subject-matter of the former litigation which might have properly been interposed ... therein. Id. In an effort to avoid the res judicata bar, Appellants note a recent formulation of the rule wherein this Court stated that when a plaintiff sue[s] a defendant in regard to a single transaction or event, [that plaintiff] must raise all claims arising from that transaction or event. Watts, supra, 957 S.W.2d at 236. Focusing on the term transaction, Appellants maintain that Baze/Bowling I was about the actual implementation of the lethal injection protocol and its constitutionality while this litigation involves a different transaction, namely the manner of the adoption of the protocol by the Department. Appellants' distinction is purely artificial. The transaction at issue here, for each of the Appellants, is the implementation of his death sentence and any and all claims available to him to challenge that implementation on whatever grounds must be brought in the first action or be forever barred by res judicata. As to Appellants Bowling and Baze, Baze/Bowling I was their first action and their Administrative Procedures Act claim, clearly available to them at the time, should have been included in that action. Res judicata bars consideration of this, the second declaratory judgment action, filed by those two Appellants. Appellant Brian Moore has not previously filed an action challenging the implementation of his death sentence and consequently his APA claim is cognizable.