Levison v. Blumenthal

Citations

• 25 Pa. Super. 55
• 1904 Pa. Super. LEXIS 13

Syllabus

<p>Judgment — Judgment of another state — ■Constitution of the United States, art. IV, sec. 1 — Res adjudicata.</p> <p>Article IV, sec. 1 of the Constitution of the United States which provides that full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records and judicial proceedings of every other state, implies that the public act of every state shall be given the same effect by the courts of another state that they have by law and usage at home.</p> <p>A judgment obtained in one state cannot be retried upon the merits in an action thereon in the courts of another state, if rendered by a court having jurisdiction of the cause and of the parties.</p> <p>When a court has jurisdiction it has a right to decide every question which occurs in the cause, and, whether its decision be correct or not, its judgment until reversed is regarded as binding in every other court.</p> <p>In an action upon a judgment obtained in a court of record in New York, the defendant denied liability for the reason that a prior suit had been brought in Pennsylvania by the same plaintiffs for the same cause of action in which there had been a judgment in favor of defendant for costs. It appeared that in the New York suit the defendant was regularly summoned and appeared and made defense. In that suit the defendant offered in evidence the record of the prior Pennsylvania suit showing that the judgment for defendants for costs was on report of a referee, which showed that the plaintiffs did not appear, and that there had been no trial on the merits before him. Held, (1) that the defendant could not impeach the New York judgment; (2) that if any error had been committed in the New York suit, the defendant’s remedy was by appeal; (3) that it was error on the part of the court in the suit brought upon the New York judgment to instruct the jury that the plaintiffs were not entitled to recover.</p> <p>Res adjudicata — Trial on the merits — Former recovery.</p> <p>It is only when the