Mallory v. City of Olympia

Citations

• 83 Wash. 499
• 145 P. 627
• 1915 Wash. LEXIS 724

Syllabus

<p>Judgment — Res Judicata — Matters Concluded — Identity of Issues. A judgment of dismissal in an action to recover on an express contract for the construction of a local improvement, is not res judicata, so as to bar a second action to recover the reasonable value of labor performed and material furnished which the city had taken advantage of in the completion of the improvement, where the only issues tendered in the former action were that the contract had not been performed according to its terms, and that the city had a right to take the work over at any time it might decide that it was not being done properly and finish it at the cost of the contractor and his bondsmen, and where the court made no findings as to the amount due on the contract, and did not pass upon the amount due for labor and materials furnished, but dismissed the action on the plea of abandonment (in the nature of a plea in bar) on the ground that the contractor had been guilty of a fraud and had abandoned the contract.</p> <p>Same — Identity of Issues — Evidence to Sustain. In such a case, under the test as to whether the same evidence would have maintained both actions, the first judgment would not be a bar to the second action, unless, to meet the plaintiff’s prima facie case on the contract and performance, the city should prove that the work had not been completed to its satisfaction and it had completed the work at a cost and damage to the city that would offset the contract price, in which action the value of the goods and labor was immaterial; while in the second action the contract and performance was immaterial, and use by the city of materials and labor furnished and their reasonable value made a prima facie case for the plaintiff.</p> <p>Municipal Corporations — Improvements—Abandonment—Acceptance of Benefits — Quantum Meruit. As cities should be held to the same standard of morals imposed by law on individuals, an action on quantum meruit for the value of labor and materials, fu