Jones v. Flannigan
Jones v. Flannigan
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff brought an action for damages for the loss of services of his 13-year-old son who plaintiff claims was killed as the result of the acts of defendant. The trial court found for defendant after a trial upon the segregated issue of estoppel by judgment. Plaintiff appeals.
This case was the subject of a prior appeal concerning a similar issue. The trial court there, in a judgment on the pleadings, had held plaintiff estopped from asserting his claim for loss of services because the pleadings showed plaintiff had had a verdict directed against him in a previous action as administrator of his son’s estate for damages to the estate resulting from the child’s death. Upon the first appeal of this case this court reversed and remanded for trial. 270 Or 121, 526 P2d 543 (1974). We there held that plaintiff was in “privity” with his former position as administrator of his son’s estate because he was in control of the action for damages to the estate and he had a personal interest in that action as an heir of his son. However, we remanded the case for trial because the pleadings did not show the basis for the directed verdict in the first case. We held that if the
At the trial which resulted from the remand and from which this appeal is taken, defendant introduced a transcript of the court’s decision in the first case which proved that the court had directed a verdict against plaintiff in that case because no acts of the defendant had been shown to be the cause of the son’s death. Upon this basis the trial court properly held that plaintiff was estopped.
Plaintiff’s only complaint seems to be that the case was remanded by this court for trial but that he was given only a partial trial and not a complete one upon all the issues. It is within the authority of the trial court to segregate an issue for a separate trial. OES 11.060.
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
“Upon motion of any party, the court, in furtherance of convenience or to avoid prejudice, or when separate trials will be conducive to expedition and economy, may order a separate trial of any claim, crossclaim, counterclaim or of any separate issue or of any number of claims, crossclaims, counterclaims or issues.”
Reference
- Full Case Name
- JONES v. FLANNIGAN
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published