Court Opinion

ID: 9549571
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:21:21.987287+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:20:32.206379
License: Public Domain

CARTER, J.
I concur in the conclusion reached but not in the reasoning in the majority opinion. I agree that the parts of the judgment dealing with the real property and personal property are not severable, and that it is necessary to decide the question of severability even though the judgment is modified rather than reversed, because otherwise we are met with the contention that the real property part, from which no appeal has been taken, is res judicata on the question of whether American Enterprise had standing to sue, inasmuch as it conveyed the land which carried the lease with it before suit. If the judgment is not severable then it would not be res judicata because that very doctrine is refuted by the cases holding that a nonappealed part of a judgment is reversible when an appeal is taken from another part where the parts are inseparable. Where they are separable then the nonappealed part is res judicata. Thus in the instant ease one of the matters determined, and necessarily so, related to the nonappealed real property part, that is, whether American Enterprise had a standing to sue since it had transferred the property. This would be res judicata as to the right to sue as to the personal property because the transfer also stripped American Enterprise of the right to sue with regard to the personal property, unless it is held that the judgment is not severable. In that connection the foregoing reason (nonseverability) is a proper one for not applying res judicata, but it is not proper to say further, as does the majority, quoting from Pillsbury v. Superior Court, 8 Cal.2d 469, 472 [66 P.2d 149], that res judicata is applicable only to issues determined in another action but not to a part of the issues in the same action. Furthermore, it is not necessary to the opinion to decide, that even though not severable, the non-appealed part will not be reversed because “justice” does not require it. I say it is not necessary, for the majority opinion gives other specific reasons for not reversing the non-appealed part, namely, that neither party is objecting to or *223injured by the nonappealed part and the rights of third parties have intervened in reliance upon it.
Those same reasons are sufficient justification for the modification of the judgment as to the personal property in spite of the fact that it is inconsistent with the real property part and nonseverable from it. The trial court found that the defendant was the owner of the personal property. The majority opinion merely adds by way of modification that plaintiff does not have a right to buy it because it transferred the real property and its rights under the lease before the action was commenced. Hence the case is no different than if the trial court had placed that added provision in its judgment. The judgment reads that plaintiff is entitled to the possession of the real property although it had transferred legal title to it before suit, but that it has not the right to buy the personal property because it had transferred that right. Plaintiff appeals from the latter part, claiming correctly, that it is inconsistent with the former part and the former is res judicata and hence it is entitled to a reversal. We could not reverse the latter part without also reversing the first part unless the judgment is severable. We should either affirm or reverse the judgment as a whole if it is not severable, because defendant could properly complain that he should have the first part reversed also if the second is reversed. We may affirm, however, for the reasons heretofore mentioned that neither party is claiming injury from the real property part.
Therefore, since it is unnecessary to reverse any part of the judgment, the discussion as to the effect of an appeal from a portion of a severable judgment is dictum. The judgment being not severable, it must be reviewed as a whole on the appeal from a nonseverable portion thereof.