In re Samuels
In re Samuels
Opinion of the Court
The order under review must be affirmed, and for reasons illustrating how legal rules sometimes overlap. A bankruptcy adjudication is final, and has the attributes of a final judgment or decree (Hargadine, etc., Co. v. Hudson, 122 Fed. 232, 58 C. C. A. 596), and the order of 1915 had similar finality. The general rule regarding a judgment pleaded as res ad judicata, we have recently restated in Sullivan v. Nitrate, etc., Co., 262 Fed. 371 (filed December 10, 1919).
Another view is this: There never was a time when the insured could get both the loan value and the surrender value on this polic).. The demands are mutually destructive. The trustee here stands in the shoes of the bankrupt insured; he elected to sue for the surrender value in 1915, and was defeated. The judgment then rendered is a bar to a later action for the alternative. This ruling rests rather on the doctrine of election of remedies, than that of res adjudicata, but is equally suitable here. Freeman, Judgts. § 256, especially Patterson, v. Wold (C. C.) 33 Fed. 791. There was a plain choice made by the trustee in 1915; that he thought it was Hobson’s choice is immaterial. Cf. Doyle v. Hamilton Co., 234 Fed. 47, 148 C. C. A. 63; Bogert v. Southern Pacific Co., 244 Fed. 61, 156 C. C. A. 489, affirmed on this point, 250 U. S. 483, 39 Sup. Ct. 533, 63 L. Ed. 1099, June 9, 1919.
Order affirmed, with costs.
Reference
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- In re SAMUELS
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