Opinion ID: 2394071
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Trial Court Properly Raised the Issue of Res Judicata[3]

Text: Threatt first argues that it was improper for the trial court to raise the issue of res judicata sua sponte. He characterizes this intervention as raising an affirmative defense that Winston had neglected to plead. We do not agree with Threatt's characterization of the trial court's action or his legal conclusion. We previously have made clear that while res judicata is an affirmative defense that must be pleaded, . . . a trial court may raise res judicata grounds sua sponte in the interest of judicial economy where, [as here,] both actions were brought before the same court. [4] Carrollsburg v. Anderson, 791 A.2d 54, 60 (D.C.2002) (citations and internal quotations omitted). As the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit persuasively explained: [W]hile res judicata exists in part to shield parties from duplicative and vexatious litigation, the interests that courts protect are also often their own  or, more precisely, those of society. Courts today are having difficulty giving a litigant one day in court. To allow that litigant a second day is a luxury that cannot be afforded. . . . As res judicata belongs to courts as well as to litigants, even a party's forfeiture of the right to assert it . . . does not destroy a court's ability to consider the issue sua sponte. Stanton v. District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 326 U.S.App. D.C. 404, 409, 127 F.3d 72, 77 (1997) (citations and internal quotations omitted). It clearly was within the trial court's discretion to raise the issue although the parties had failed to mention it. [5]