Court Opinion

ID: 9696208
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:41:05.525345+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:19.619317
License: Public Domain

Danhof, J.
(dissenting). I would affirm the action of the trial court in granting the motion for accelerated judgment.
The record discloses the plaintiffs in a 1967 action had filed a complaint in two counts. Count II of the 1967 action made essentially the same claim as is stated in the instant suit. Subsequently, at the pretrial conference in the prior action the plaintiffs abandoned count II and they now seek to relitigate that claim.
The majority states that defendants’ failure to object to the abandonment of count II waived their right to object to the current action, GrCR 1963, 203.1. In my opinion GrCR 1963, 203.1 has no application to the case at hand. The prior complaint did state every claim, legal or equitable, which at the time of the serving of that pleading the plaintiffs had against the defendants. There was then nothing more defendants could do. If, after serving the complaint, the plaintiffs voluntarily waived count II, this was their own decision.
Plaintiffs had the opportunity, in the prior suit, to litigate the matters which are the basis of their current action. In Gursten v. Kenney (1965), 375 Mich 330, 333, the Supreme Court said:
“The correct rule is stated in Olsen v. Mushegon Piston Ring Co., 117 F2d 163 (1941). In that case a *720Federal district court had entered an order of dismissal because the plaintiff failed to proceed to trial upon the merits. A second suit was instituted upon the same grounds. The court of appeals, in upholding the Federal district court’s decision that the matter was res judicata, stated (p 165):
“ ‘The dismissal of the first suit was entered upon a finding and legal conclusion made after hearing, and after calling upon appellant to go forward with proof in support of his claim. These findings and conclusions constitute a judicial determination which was affirmed by this court. No appeal was taken from the affirmance, and hence the decision is final and cannot be collaterally attacked.
# # #
“ ‘A judgment on the merits does not require a determination of the controversy after a trial or hearing on controverted facts. It is sufficient if the record shows that the parties might have had their controversies determined according to their respective rights if they had presented all their evidence and the court had applied the law. 2 Freeman on Judgments (5th ed), §§ 7723-725.’”
On p 335, the Court further stated:
“The correct rule is found in Henderson v. Henderson, 3 Hare 100, 115 (67 Eng Rep 313), and is quoted in Michigan decisions from Harrington v. Huff & Mitchell Co. [1908], 155 Mich 139, 142, to Shank v. Castle [1959], 357 Mich 290, 295:
“ ‘The plea of res judicata applies, except in special cases, not only to points upon which the court was actually required by the parties to form an opinion and pronounce a judgment, but to every point which properly belonged to the subject of litigation, and which the parties, exercising reasonable deligence, might have brought forward at the time.’ ” (Emphasis added.)
*721See also Strech v. Blissfield Community District Schools (1959), 357 Mich 620; Hyma v. Hippler (1967), 7 Mich App 90; Snider v. Dunn (1971), 33 Mich App 619.