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349 So. 2d 826

Docket No. 76-1864.

Perez v. Rodriguez

Jose Amado PEREZ, M.D., P.A., Appellant, v. Sergio Max RODRIGUEZ, M.D., Appellee.

District Court of Appeal of Florida

Decided September 13, 1977.

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 1977-09-13

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“a default judgment conclusively establishes between the parties . . . the truth of all material allegations contained in the complaint in the first action and every fact necessary to uphold the default judgment, but such judgment is not conclusive as to any defense or issue which was not raised and is not necessary to uphold the default judgment.”

quoted by 4 later decisions, including Nourbakhsh v. Gayden (In Re Nourbakhsh), Dimmitt & Owens Financial, Inc. v. Green (In Re Green)

Relies on 164 So. 2d 517 - Baum v. Pines Realty, Inc.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1977-09-13

How this case has been cited

Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently October 2016

2 federal appellate · 2 state decisions

10019771980199020002010decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1*827 Robinson & Greenberg, Miami, for appellant.

¶2Wayne, Genden & Bach and James W. Jarvis, Miami, for appellee.

¶3Before HENDRY, C.J., and PEARSON and HUBBART, JJ.

¶4HUBBART, Judge.

¶5The plaintiff (Jose Perez) appeals from a final judgment entered in favor of the defendant (Sergio Rodriguez) upon granting the defendant's motion for summary judgment as to counts I and IV of the plaintiff's complaint. The motion for summary judgment was based on res judicata grounds. The plaintiff contends on appeal that a prior default judgment entered against him in an action brought by the defendant Rodriguez on two promissory notes was not res judicata as to the present breach of contract actions notwithstanding that the prior notes arose out of obligations contained in the contract now sued upon. We agree and reverse.

¶6The law is clear that a default judgment conclusively establishes between the parties, so far as subsequent proceedings on a different cause of action are concerned, the truth of all material allegations contained in the complaint in the first action and every fact necessary to uphold the default judgment, but such judgment is not conclusive as to any defense or issue which was not raised and is not necessary to uphold the default judgment. Baum v. Pines Realty, Inc.,164 So.2d 517, 522 (Fla. 2d DCA 1964). The complaint in the prior action on the promissory notes alleged that the plaintiff Perez executed two promissory notes in favor of the defendant Rodriguez which the plaintiff Perez defaulted on and for which judgment should be entered in the amount due and owing. The default judgment entered upon this complaint conclusively establishes that the plaintiff Perez is liable to the defendant Rodriguez on the two promissory notes in the total amount adjudged.

¶7The default judgment, however, is not conclusive on the breach of contract actions presently brought since these actions raise issues which were not involved in the prior actions and which are not necessary to uphold the prior default judgment. Indeed, the complaint in the prior action does not even mention the contract upon which the present suit is brought. Moreover, the present suit alleges facts and theories of liability under the contract which are in no way inconsistent with the established liability of the plaintiff Perez on the prior promissory notes. Counts I and IV of the present complaint are, accordingly, not barred by res judicata.

¶8The judgment appealed from is reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings.

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