Court Opinion

ID: 9666377
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:12:29.747286+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:27.270984
License: Public Domain

John I. Purtle, Justice, dissenting. I think the majority is wrong in ruling that the doctrine of res judicata bars this lawsuit and that the issue concerning a final order is not properly before this court. Res judicata precludes parties from drawing the same controversy into issue a second time. However, the doctrine applies only if there is a final judgment after a hearing on the merits. The general rule in Arkansas is that before a judgment is final and appealable the order must dismiss the parties from the court, discharge them from the action, or conclude their rights to the subject matter in controversy. Corning Bank v. Delta Rice Mills, Inc., 281 Ark. 342, 663 S.W.2d 737 (1984). There was no final judgment in this case. The first action between the parties was a replevin action. The circuit court dismissed this action for a failure to prosecute. The appellants and appellees both agree that a dismissal for want of prosecution is not a final judgment. The majority, however, relies on the claim preclusion doctrine as barring any further litigation between these parties. The claim preclusion doctrine is the heart of res judicata. There can be no claim preclusion without res judicata, and there can be no res judicata without a final judgment. As this court stated in Fawcett v. Rhyne, 187 Ark. 940, 63 S.W.2d 349 (1933): The doctrine of res judicata does not rest upon the fact that a particular proposition has been affirmed and denied in the pleadings, but upon the fact that it has been fully and fairly investigated and tried — that the parties have had an adequate opportunity to say and prove all that they can in relation to it, that the minds of court and jury have been brought to bear upon it, and so it has been solemnly and finally adjudicated. [Citation omitted.] If a particular point was not in issue in the suit — either in the technical sense of an issue framed by the pleadings, or in the sense of being the decisive question in the case and the one actually litigated and determining the result — it is not conclusively established by the judgment therein, for the purposes of a subsequent suit upon a different cause of action .... [Citation omitted.] It is clear that the civil rights and tort claims raised by the present action were not at issue in the replevin action. The former action brought by the appellants was to recover certain items of personal property seized by the appellees. The question of damages in the replevin action was never resolved. The case was dismissed without a final judgment. Without a final judgment in the replevin action the doctrine of res judicata simply does not apply. The majority applies the claim preclusion doctrine of res judicata, and yet it is clear that all of the necessary factors to invoke the doctrine are not present. It is undisputed that there is no final judgment in the replevin action. Without a final judgment, there can be no claim preclusion. The doctrine of res judicata applies only when there has been a final judgment. The majority relies upon Bailey v. Harris Break Fire Protection Dist., 287 Ark. 268, 697 S.W.2d 1916 (1985), for the five (5) factors necessary to invoke the claim preclusion doctrine. However, the very first requirement for claim preclusion is missing in the present case. All parties agree there has never been a judgment on the merits in the original suit. Why this court cannot accept that fact is beyond my comprehension. Whether the appellants specifically argued in the trial court that there is no final judgment should not control the outcome of this litigation because the application of the doctrine of res judicata is undeniably what this appeal is all about. The question of a final judgment is simply one factor to be considered in the resolution of the ultimate issue — whether res judicata bars the present action. The conclusions reached by the majority are supported neither by the law nor the facts. Therefore, I would reverse and send this case back for a trial on the merits.