Court Opinion

ID: 9760951
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:25:28.85751+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:19.017346
License: Public Domain

QUINN, Associate Judge
(concurring only in the result).
I think the majority opinion has taken a step backward procedurally. I maintained, and am still convinced, that the order of the trial court should be reversed and appellees’ motion to dismiss the certified case should have been granted. In 1896 the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in National Express & Transp. Co. v. Burdette, 7 App.D.C. 551, 560, stated:
“The general principle is well settled that the pendency of a prior suit between the same parties for the same cause of action or claim of right will abate a later suit, because in such a case the last is deemed unnecessary, and therefore vexatious. The reason for this rule is that the second suit is unnecessary and consequently oppressive.”
I am persuaded that the logic of this reasoning continues to hold valid today.
However, the majority has departed from this well-settled principle by here condoning the practice of a litigant initiating suit in the Municipal Court for $3,000 and later, after an interim of seven months, filing the identical suit in the District Court for $25,000; then, when a motion to dismiss this latter action is denied, acquiescing in its certification to the Municipal Court. Under the procedure followed by the trial court, a plaintiff is then given the right to select the case most favorable to his interests and to proceed thereon upon the payment of costs. The majority opinion frankly states: “Appellant had no right to demand this choice of proceeding with one or the other of the cases.” It further declares : “ * * * the trial court in giving appellant the right to elect to proceed with either of the actions, although this right was conditional, gave appellant more than he could ask as of right.” This procedure is legally wrong. I am one of those who believe that the rules of procedure should not be strained to this extent when there is no equitable justification therefor. I would vacate the order of the trial court and remand with instructions to grant ap-pellees’ motion to dismiss the certified case.