Court Opinion

ID: 9765057
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:49:20.777887+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:04.177915
License: Public Domain

*107ROBERTS, Justice,
dissenting.
Appellant Duquesne Slag Products Co. challenges the Department of Transportation’s practice of requesting bids for stone, slag or gravel upon a straight per ton basis despite the alleged fact that only 87 tons of slag are necessary to lay the same cubical content on highways as 100 tons of stone. The Commonwealth Court, with three judges dissenting, dismissed appellant’s action on the ground that appellant’s unsuccessful litigation of a similar claim some twenty-nine years ago invokes the doctrine of res judicata, thereby precluding litigation of the instant claim. See Duquesne Slag Products Co. v. Woolworth, 62 Dauphin 265 (1951). The majority now affirms this order of the Commonwealth Court. I must dissent.
The majority misperceives the modern res judicata doctrine. Res judicata encompasses two different, though related, ways
“in which a judgment in one action will have a binding effect on another. This includes the effect of the former judgment where the later action proceeds on all or part of the very claim which was the subject of the former. In traditional terminology, this effect is called merger or bar; in modern terminology it is called claim preclusion. A second effect is traditionally known as collateral estoppel and modernly called issue preclusion. It has to do with an issue determined in a first action when the same issue arises in a later action based upon a different claim or demand.”
F. James, Jr. and G. C. Hazard, Jr., Civil Procedure 532 (2d ed. 1977); see Restatement (Second) of Judgments §§ 47-61.2 (claim preclusion) (Tent. Drafts No. 1, 1973 and No. 5, 1978) and 68-68.1 (issue preclusion) (Tent. Draft No. 5, 1978).
The majority apparently believes that “claim preclusion” governs this case. I cannot agree. While it is true that the issues raised now are similar, perhaps identical, to those *108raised twenty-nine years ago, the instant claim is separate and distinct from the former claim. A “claim” refers to “all rights of the plaintiff to remedies against the defendant arising with respect to all or any part of the transaction, or series of connected transactions . . . and a transaction refers to a factual incident or event. Restatement (Second) of Judgments, supra at § 61. Appellant’s old claim arose from the Commonwealth’s bidding practice twenty-nine years ago, while appellant’s present claim concerns those practices as they are today. The transactions underlying each claim, and thus the claims themselves, are clearly separable and discrete. Accordingly, the doctrine of claim preclusion adopted by the majority is inappropriate here.
The rule of issue preclusion requires that when:
“an issue of fact or law is actually litigated and determined by a valid and final judgment, and the determination is essential to the judgment, the determination is conclusive in a subsequent action between the parties, whether on the same or a different claim.”
Restatement (Second) of Judgments, supra at § 68. Exceptions to this rule, however, require that appellant be permitted to proceed with the instant litigation. Appellant alleges that developments in science and technology since 1951, as well as changes in government practice since 1951, demonstrate the validity of appellant’s present claim and its entitlement to proceed to litigate that claim. In light of the alleged wholly changed circumstances and the substantial passage of time since the former action, it would be unfair to preclude appellant from challenging the twenty-nine year old decision. See Civil Procedure, supra at 572-73; accord Restatement (Second) of Judgments, supra at § 68.1. This is especially so since the right to challenge that decision is available to all of appellant’s competitors. Accordingly, the order of the Commonwealth Court should be reversed and the cause remanded for further appropriate proceedings.
LARSEN, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.