Shaffer v. Wilmore Coal Co.

Citations

• 246 Pa. 550
• 92 A. 701
• 1914 Pa. LEXIS 552

Syllabus

<p>Actions — Bes adjudicata — Ejectment—Prior suit in equity between same parties — Binding instructions.</p> <p>1. The rule that a cause of action once finally determined, without appeal, between the parties, on the merits, by a competent tribunal, cannot afterwards be litigated by new proceedings, either before the same or any other tribunal, applies where the cause, of action, while not technically the same, is nevertheless so related to the cause in the prior litigation that some matter, the establishment of which is essential to recovery in the second, was determined in the first.</p> <p>2. At the trial of an action of ejectment where it appeared that plaintiff’s right to possession had been finally adjudicated against him in a suit in equity for specific performance of a contract to convey the land in suit to defendants’ assignors, wherein the decree which was unappealed from, .determined every question raised on the trial of the action of ejectment, the court made no error in directing a verdict for defendants.</p>