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Parties may not pursue matter already litigated

MHC lawyers have written a note on a recent High Court case.

A litigant sought to bring a claim that she had already largely litigated as a counterclaim in a separate prior set of proceedings involving the same parties.

The court’s decision confirms that if the subject matter involves the same parties and has already been decided by a court, it cannot be pursued again in separate proceedings.

This accords with the well-established legal principle of res judicata, which prevents the re-litigation of previously decided matters. The court also determined that, to the extent there were additional related allegations, these could not be pursued either.

This was because of what is known as the rule in Henderson v Henderson, which essentially requires a litigant to bring all claims against a party within one action.

Overall, the decision confirms the significance of legal certainty and finality, and the need to avoid abuse of process by preventing multiple actions on the same issue.

Background

A solicitor had acted for a woman (and others) in bringing a challenge to the woman’s sister’s will in 2011. The woman was unsuccessful in that challenge, in which the solicitor ceased acting in 2012, MHC points out.

However, the solicitor ultimately had to bring proceedings against her to recover his fees for his work on challenging the will. In defending the claim for the solicitor’s fees, the woman filed a full defence and a counterclaim, in which she claimed damages for negligence against the solicitor.

The solicitor prevailed in his claim – it was determined that he was entitled to his fees and the woman’s counterclaim was dismissed.

Subsequently, however, the woman issued a separate set of professional-negligence proceedings against the solicitor seeking damages arising out of his allegedly negligent representation of her in the challenge to her sister’s will.

The defendant solicitor sought to strike out the professional-negligence proceedings on a number of grounds. Ultimately, the application proceeded on the issue of whether the professional-negligence proceedings should be struck out as being res judicata.

Decision

Mr Justice Barr said that he was satisfied that “any claim by the plaintiff that the defendant acted negligently or in breach of contract in and about his representation of her in the will suit, has been heard and determined by a court on a previous occasion.”

It was clear that the issue was raised in the prior counterclaim in proceedings that had been determined decisively in the solicitor’s favour following a full plenary hearing with oral evidence.

Mr Justice Barr therefore decided that the issues were clearly res judicata and “cannot be relitigated in these proceedings”.