Burdon v. West New Orleans Light & Traction Co.
Burdon v. West New Orleans Light & Traction Co.
Opinion of the Court
This is a. suit in damages brought by plaintiff ^and wife against the Test Hew Orleans light & Traotion Company, /-and the Southern Cotton Oil Company, made co-defendants, for Vloss of their son, who was killed while a passenger on the eleetrio oar. of the Traotion Company. Plaintiffs herein are ppeHants, from a Judgment rendered by the 28th Judicial Dls-.triot Court far the Parish of Jefferson, whereby the .Court maintained exceptions, of res adjudicate, and pleas of estop-pel filed by eaoh of said defendants, the suit being dismissed at plaintiffs' cost.- -Prom-the record it appears that this proceeding was filed on June 8, 1921;' that the Traotion Company filed exceptions of no cause or right of action on June 18, 1921, and that the Oil Company filed similar exceptions on' June 20, 1921; these exceptions were fixed by order of court to-be tried on July 8, 1921, on which day it appears that both defendants filed additional pleas of estoppel and res adjudicate as aboye mentioned, and the District Court, on the'same day, maintained these latter pleas without passing in any manner upon the exceptions of no cause or right of aotion, which-had been specifically-set for trial. The appeal is solely from the Judgment-maintaining the pleas of estoppel and res adjudi- - cata, and it follows therefore, that the sole question before this .Court is whether said, pleas of estoppel and res adjudicate ' had. been rightly maintained,.
We are of the opinion that the judgment of. the lower Court was erroneous, for reasons hereinafter discussed, and inasmuch as the exceptions of no cause.or right of action - wer¿^passed upon by the lower Court, this Court will not con* aider same.
In support of their pleas of estoppel and res adjudicate, both defendants have offered and filed in evidence record Ho. 3213 of the docket of the Trial Court, from whioh it appears that the same plaintiffs, alleging the same unfortunate accident, first filed a suit in damages only against the Traotion Company, who, in effect, denied all the allegations, of the petition, and defended on the ground that the aocident was not due to any fault of the Traotion Coiqpany, but solely to the acts of third persons; that these third persons (their names not being dlsolosed) had, a short time before the aocident, trespassed upon the Traotion Company’s road-bed, without .the Company's knowledge or oonsent, and by digging a concrete culvert under the Company's traoks, and through its road-bed, had undermined the road-bed, causing same to soften, and causing the railway
It is a fair presumption,' Justified by the record" pleadings in the first suit, and fortified by well established Jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of this state, that exceptions of no cause of action suoh as were filed in the first suit, were directed against insufficient declarations of essential facts, rather than against want of declarations, the lack of-which, upon the merits of the .suit, would impel its dismissal, and bar recovery. In the absenoe of record proof to the contrary, it should be assumed that.the -Trial Court maintained the Oil Company’s first exceptions of no cause of action in the first suit for some suoh reason as .would have . Justified the Court in reserving to plaintiffs the right to amend, rather than to peremptorily bar plaintiffs' right to' " recovery against the Qil Company,
We are not in accord with contention of counsel for the Oil Company that failure to appeal from the judgment maintaining its exoeption of no oause of action was fatal to plaintiffs’ right,'while dismissing first suit, to again proceed, in. a new and seoond action based on the same demands.
Under definite Jurisprudence of this state, plaintiffs were Justified in dismissing the first suit, under the confidence that a new action could be brought against both parties made defendants in the oause now before us, -In the case of the Succession of Herber, 119 Xa. 1063, the.Supreme Court distinctly held;
*823 "In many eases where an exception of no cause of action is filed, and the same is sustained, and the suit is dismissed, it cannot be ascertained' on • the face of the papers what the precise ground was on which the court's action was based. In such cases the party against whom the exception i3 urged is permitted to establish that fact by evidence de-hors the record, xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxx
An insufficient statement by .an attorney of the grounds upon which the rights of his client are predicated does not carry with it under the law as a penalty that the actually existing legal rights of the client should be absolutely cut -off, At -the furthest, it throws the- clients out of court, but - under the right of renewing the attach under allegations sufficient, if proved, to warrant and Justify a Judgment. A Judgment throwing plaintiff out of court solely for want of certain allegation» in his petition can certainly .not be held to prevent his invoking the aid of the courts in his behalf when he subsequently files a petition containing all the allegations needed to sustain a cause of action."
In the case Just quoted from, the court went on to say that in affinning the lower court's Judgment dismissing the suit on a previbus appeal, under exceptions of no cause of action, that it did not consider there was any necessity for a reservation of the plaintiff's right to bring a new suit with proper allegations. It also quotes with affirmative approval Hart & Oo. v. Bowie - 34 Ea« Ann,.326 - reading:
"In that case we said:
'We note the suggestion of plaintiffs that the Judgment be amended so as to make it one of non-suit. The. Judgment, being one of dismissal on exception, adjudicates nothing on the merits, and does not debar plaintiff of the right of filing another action for the same relief.*"
See also: Gould vt- Railroad, ?1 tr.S. 626. , Tie 11s on Res Adjudieata and Stare Decisis, Sects., 13,1.8; Id,-p. 370, et seq, Soots. 446,447,
The same ruling was nade, in Banahan v. svarva, 146 Xa. 906, where the court said;
"If, then, the first petition would have disclosed a cause of action if it had alleged- that Svarva was not an innocent purchaser, it is clear that,'as -the second petition meets that requirement, it disclosed a cause of action, and that neither the exception of res Judicata, filed in the second suit, and based upon the maintenance, in the first suit, of the exception of no cause of action, nor the exception of no cause of action,filed in the second suit, was well founded,"
We are of the opinion that the maintenance of the Oil Company's exception of no oause of action, and the dismissal or withdrawal of the whole suit in the first case was in no manner a bar to the institution of the second suit now before us. This Court in the case of Illinois Central R.R. Co., v. H.O. Terminal Company, 14 Ct. of App., p. 310, has held as follows:
"Maintaining an exception of no cause of action, based merely on defective pleadings, and not going to the merits of the controversy, does not form the basis of res adJudicata, Hence it is proper under such exception to simply non-suit the plaintiff; or the case may be remanded to allow plaintiff an opportunity to amend." - (Affirmed, 143 la. 407).
We are of the opinion that the judgment of the l'rial Court maintaining the pleas of estoppel and res
adjudicata and dismissing plaintiffs'suit, is erroneous, and should be reversed.
It is therefore, ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the judgment herein appealed from, be, and the same hereby is reversed, at appellees' costs, and that this cause be, and it hereby is remanded to the District Court, and reinstated on its docket to be there proceeded with according to law.
REVERSED and REWARDED.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.