RES JIMICATA (Lat. things decided). In Practice. A legal or equitable issue which has been decided by a court of compe tent jurisdiction.
It is a general principle that such decision is binding and conclusive upon all other courts of con current power. This principle pervades not only our own, but all other systems of jurisprudence, and bas become a rule of universal law, founded on the soundest policy. If, therefore, Paul sue Peter to recover the amount due to him upon a band, and on the trial tbe plaintiff fails to prove the duo exe cution of the bond by Peter,—in consequence of which a verdict is rendered for the defendant end judgment is ent,ered thereupon,—this judgment, till reversed on error, is conclusive upon the par ties, and Paul cannot recover in a, subsequent suit, although he may then be able to prove the duo ex eoutioo of the bond hy Peter, and that the money is due to him; for, to use the language of the eivillans, res judicata facie ex alb,' nigrum, ex nigro album, ex citron rectum, ex recto cowman (a decision makes white black ; black, white; the crooked, straight ; the straight, ernoked).
The constitution of the United States and the amendments to it declare that no fact once tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examinable in any court of the United States than according to the rules of the common law.
But in order to make a matter res fudieata there must be a concurrence of the four con ditions following, namely : identity in the (king sued for, 5 Mees. & W. Exch. 109; 3
East, 346; 7 Johns. N. Y. 20; 1 lien. & M. Va. 449; 1 Dan. Ky. 434; identity of the cause of action: if, for exaniple, I have Claimed a right of way over Blackacre, and a final judgment has been rendered against me, and afterwards I purchase Blackacre, this first decision shall not be a bar to my recovery- when I sue as owner of the land, and not for an easement over it which 1 claimed as a right appurtenant to my land Whiteacre, 6 Wheat. 109; 2 Gall. C. C. 216; 17 Mass. 237 ; 2 Leigh, Va. 474; 8 Conn. 268 ; 1^ Nott & M'C. So. C. 329 ; 16 Serg. 86 R. Penn:- 282 ; 17 id. 319; 3 Pick. Mass. 429; identity of persons and of parties to the ac tion, 7 Cranch, 271: 1 Wheat. 6 ; 14 Serg. & R. Penn. 435; 4 Mass. 441 ; 2 Yerg. Tenn. 10; 5 Me. 410; 8 Gratt. Va. 68; 16 Mo. 168; 12 Ga. 271 ; 21 Ala. N. s. 813 ; 4 Den. N. Y. 302 ; 23 Barb. N. Y.464: this rule is a neces sary consequence of the rule of natural jus tice, ne inauditus condemnetur ; identity of' the quality in the persona for or against whom the claim is made : for example, an action, by Peter to recover a horse, and a final judgment against him, is no bar to an action by Peter, administrator of Paul, to recover the same horse. 5 Coke, 32 b ; 4 Term, 490 ; 6 Mann. & G. 164 ; 4 C. B. 884. See llamas CORPUS ; FORMER JUDGMENT; 2 Phillipps, Ev. passim.