GLORIA MEYER AND ELLIOTT MEYER, HER HUSBAND, APPELLANTS,
v.
FORTY-FIVE TWENTY-FIVE, INC., A FLORIDA CORPORATION, APPELLEE
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Gloria and Elliott Meyer sued the Eden Roc Hotel for negligence after being robbed and assaulted in their locked hotel room in 1963. The trial court entered summary judgment for the hotel, and the appellate court affirmed on the ground that the negligence claims were barred by estoppel by judgment, having been previously litigated and decided adversely to the Meyers in a New York rent collection action.
The court held that the negligence claims were barred by estoppel by judgment. The fact that the issues were raised in the New York action on pleadings filed by the husband did not relieve the wife of the estoppel, as she was a party defendant in the New York action and the husband's assertion of the damage claim benefited both spouses.
“the record showed that the cause of action which the plaintiffs asserted here is barred by estoppel by judgment”
The court's core holding that prior litigation of the same negligence issues in the New York action barred the present claim
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe Meyers were guests at the Eden Roc Hotel in Miami Beach from December 1962 to February 23, 1963. On February 16, 1963, at 4:30 A.M., they were rob…
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Appellants filed an action in the civil court of record against the appellee Forty-*651Five Twenty-Five,. Inc., for damages for personal injuries and property loss alleged to have resulted from negligence of the defendant. The trial court entered summary judgment in favor of the defendant. The two plaintiffs filed separate appeals, which were consolidated here.
By their second amended complaint the plaintiffs, who are husband and wife, alleged they were guests in the Eden Roc Hotel, operated by the defendant corporation in Miami Beach, from a date in December 1962 to February 23, 1963; that at 4:30 o’clock A.M. on February 16, 1963, they were robbed and subjected to assault and battery by a thief who entered their locked room with the use of a key; that the defendant was negligent in failing to provide a type of lock for the door, or an additional locking device to prevent such entry when locked from the inside; and that the defendant was negligent by delaying approximately seven minutes before responding to their call for assistance made by telephone to the hotel’s switchboard operator.
Defendant moved for summary judgment, and in support thereof submitted documentary evidence revealing that an action had been filed against the plaintiffs in the City and County of New York by an as-signee of the defendant for their unpaid room rental in the hotel from February 16 to February 23, 1963; and that the plaintiffs had pleaded as a defense and off-set to the rent claim in the New York action the facts as above set forth.
An examination of the transcript of the trial of the matter in the New York action shows that the issues regarding negligence of the defendant corporation which are pleaded in this cause by the plaintiffs, were presented and tried in the New York court and ruled upon adversely to them there. Accordingly, the trial court was eminently correct in holding that the defendant was entitled to judgment as a matter of law, as the record showed that the cause of action which the plaintiffs asserted here is barred by estoppel by judgment. Prall v. Prall, 58 Fla. 596, 50 So. 867, 26 L.R.A.,N.S., 577; Gordon v. Gordon, Fla.1952, 59 So.2d 40; Stone v. Stone, Fla.App.1959, 111 So.2d 486. The fact that such issues were raised and tried in the New York action on pleadings filed by the husband does not relieve the wife of the effect of the estoppel by judgment. She was a party defendant in the New York action, and the assertion of the damage claim against the hotel corporation in the New York case by the husband was for the benefit of his wife as well as for himself. Moreover, a portion of the claim of the husband against the hotel corporation as tried in the New York case was derivative of the wife’s claim to damages. See Sisemore v. Neal, 1963, 236 Ark. 574, 367 S.W. 2d 417, and 50 C.J.S. Judgments § 798.
Affirmed.
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Bardwell v. Marlin Langston, 244 So. 2d 742 (Fla. 4th DCA 1971)…not otherwise contended. Parties may not rclitigate matters actually litigated and determined in prior suits. Gordon v. Gordon, Fla.1952, 59 So. 2d 40; Field v. Field, Fla. 1956, 91 So. 2d 640; Meyer v. Forty-Five Twenty-Five, Inc., Fla.App. 1967, 198 So. 2d 650. Here plaintiff is precluded from re-litigating the issue of the Ford’s ownership upon the principle or doctrine of es-toppel by judgment. In Shirley v. Shirley, Fla.App.1958, 100 So. 2d 450, it was explained : “The doctrines of res judicata and e…
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Nelson v. Rever, 264 So. 2d 879 (Fla. 3d DCA 1972)…lier actions. Field v. Field, Fla.1956, 91 So. 2d 640; Gordon v. Gordon, Fla.1952, 59 So. 2d 40, cert. den. 344 U.S. 878, 73 S.Ct. 165, 97 L.Ed. 680; Bardwell v. Langston, Fla.App.1971, 244 So. 2d 742; Meyer v. Forty-Five Twenty-Five, Fla.App. 1967, 198 So. 2d 650. The summary judgment of the lower court and its dismissal with prejudice of defendant’s amended counterclaim and third party complaint is affirmed. This affirmance, however, relates only to those matters decided in the partial judgment of the New…
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- Sebastian v. THE City of Miami (Fla. 3d DCA 2020)
- Stone v. Stone, 111 So. 2d 486 (Fla. 3d DCA 1959)