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27 Ga. App. 290

Westbrook v. Griffin

Court of Appeals of Georgia

Decided July 12, 1921

Court of Appeals of Georgia · decided 1921-07-12

<p>Complaint; from city court of Americus — Judge Harper. March 22, 1921.</p>

Relies on Kemp v. Central of Georgia Railway Co. · McElmurray v. Blodgett · Wolfe v. Georgia Railway & Electric Co.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1921-07-12

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently January 1994

4 state decisions

1019211930194019501960197019801990decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Broyles, C. J.

¶11. Where a petition is met with a general demurrer which sets out that no cause of action is shown by the petition, the judgment sustaining the demurrer, if not reversed, is a bar to any subsequent suit by the plaintiff against the defendant on the claim or demand set forth in the petition, either upon the ground set forth therein, or upon any other grounds which could have been added thereto by amendment. Satterfield v. Spier, 114 Ga. 127, 132 (39 S. E. 930); McElmurray v. Blodgett, 120 Ga. 9, 15 (47 S. E. 531). However, a demurrer, which states that “ defendant demurs to the petition because the same does not clearly, fully, and distinctly set forth any cause of action against defendant,” is really a special demurrer, since it points out a defeet in form rather than a defect in substance. Kemp v. Central Railway Co., 122 Ga. 559, 561 (50 S. E. 465). It is a general demurrer only in the sense that it goes to the whole ease and results in the dismissal of the entire action, and such a demurrer may be sustained without creating a res adjudicata. Wolfe v. Georgia Railway & Electric Co., 6 Ga. App. 410, 413 (65 S. E. 62).

¶22. Under the above ruling, the dismissal of the plaintiff’s former action against the defendant on demurrer was not a bar to the present suit; and the court erred in sustaining the defendant’s special plea in bar and in dismissing the case.

¶3Judgment reversed.

Bloodworth, J., concurs. Luke, J., dissents.
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