Linton v. Perry Knitting Company

In Linton v. Perry Knitting Company, 295 NY 14 (1945) the prior action was dismissed because of statute of limitations and workmen compensation provided the sole remedy of plaintiff and the exclusive liability of the defendant. In the second action, the Court of Appeals dismissed the second complaint because it was virtually a copy of the first complaint which was dismissed. The Court upheld the dismissal because the second complaint failed to remedy the defects on omissions contained in the first complaint. The Court indicated that the second action would be allowed if the problems had been corrected in the second complaint: "The former judgment was a final determination that for either of two several legal reasons the allegations of the earlier complaint were without more quite ineffectual. Such a determination, whether right or wrong, is a bar to another action for the same cause, unless the defects or omissions adjudged to be present in the one action are corrected or supplied by the pleadings in the other. Joannes Brothers Co. v. Lamborn, 237 NY 207, 142 NE 587. The complaint now before us is virtually a copy of its predecessor. Hence dismissal of the present action was validly directed, even if the judgment in the earlier action was not a judgment on the merits a point that we do not decide. Cf. Civil Practice Act, s 482; Richard. v. American Union Bank, 253 NY 166, 170 NE 532, 69 ALR 667; Brick v. Cohn-Hall-Marx Co., 283 NY 99, 104, 27 NE2d 518; 2 Freeman on Judgments (5th ed.), ss 745, 746, 747; Restatement, Judgments, ss 49, 50."