Court Opinion

ID: 9704691
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:43:16.562047+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:04.457269
License: Public Domain

HORNBY, Justice,
dissenting.
An exception to the final judgment rule as broad as the Court’s definition of “judicial economy” — namely, any instance when *201our decision can serve the “interests of justice” and dispose finally of the entire litigation — ensures that virtually every trial court decision rejecting a res judicata defense will now be appealed on an interlocutory basis. And how shall we distinguish rejection of other affirmative defenses? The same argument — that it is unfair to have to litigate the case at all and .that it should be terminated immediately — can be made on appeal by a defendant who has unsuccessfully pleaded any one of a number of other affirmative defenses such as accord and satisfaction; arbitration and award; payment; release; or the statute of limitations. In all such instances the policy behind the affirmative defense is to avoid further litigation, just as with this defendant’s res judicata defense, and every trial court docket shows that large corporations and ordinary individuals can file harassing lawsuits as well as a state agency can. But the final judgment rule is premised in part on the sensible proposition that 99 out of 100 times the trial justice will rule correctly and that the occasional error will receive a sufficient although not perfect cure by review after a final judgment is entered.1 It is true that in the few cases of trial court error the need to go through a trial means that the policy behind the affirmative defense may not be completely served, but that consequence is better than having this Court review every affirmative defense on an interlocutory basis.2
Despite the attractiveness of this defendant’s res judicata defense, I would not reach that issue at this interlocutory stage, but would dismiss for lack of a final judgment.

. The cases the Court cites do not support an interlocutory appeal here. State v. Maine State Employees Ass'n, 482 A.2d 461 (Me.1984), rejected an interlocutory appeal and described the judicial economy exception to the final judgment rule as reserved for "rare cases.” Accord, In re Erica B., 520 A.2d 342 (Me.1987). In Milstar Mfg. Corp. v. Waterville Urban Renewal Auth., 351 A.2d 538 (Me.1976), the Court already had the case before it on report in any event. In Packard v. Whitten, 274 A.2d 169 (Me.1971), a defendant’s appeal from a final judgment in favor of one taxi-cab occupant involved in an automobile accident was properly before the Court. The defendant had also appealed judgments of liability rendered in favor of two other occupants, but those judgments were interlocutory because the issue of damages had been deferred. Since the first case was properly before the court and raised identical liability issues to the other two, the Court decided to rule on liability in all three. Finally, Bar Harbor Banking & Trust Co. v. Alexander, 411 A.2d 74 (Me.1980), was an extraordinary case where the Superior Court had enjoined another branch of government from carrying out its statutorily authorized duties. The Court heard the interlocutory appeal to "safeguard the separation of powers” and avoid disruption of the executive department’s functions. None of these cases was a simple rejection of an affirmative defense like res judicata.
The only case the Court cites that is even close to this case is Munsey v. Groves, 151 Me. 200, 117 A.2d 64 (1955). There the Court permitted an interlocutory appeal by a defendant whose motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction had been denied. There is no other suggestion in our case law that a denial of an affirmative defense like lack of personal jurisdiction is immediately appealable. I believe that the Munsey case is not a precedent that should be expanded or even followed.

. Even if we ultimately decide in most such cases that our decision will not dispose finally of the entire litigation or serve the interests of justice, we will first have to review the interlocutory appeal to make that determination. We can be sure that every lawyer with a rejected res judicata defense will feel duty bound to his or her client to appeal the issue immediately for such review, because it offers the possibility of quickly terminating the litigation.