Opinion of the Court.

method of collection; also whether John Klein was the owner of the judgment, and if so, whether he was estopped by having registered in the office of the comptroller a transfer of the same, and also whether the judgment was not subject to certain credits; whereas the issue involved in this case was whether the property upon which it is alleged the execution was levied and the property sold was legally subject to such seizure and sale; also that the thing demanded in the other suit was not the same thing demanded in this suit, the prayer in the other being for an injunction restraining Klein from selling the property in dispute, whereas the thing demanded in this case was a decree declaring the sale effected by Klein absolutely null and void. The court sustained the objection and refused to admit the evidence, and the defendant duly excepted.

Oral evidence was then given for the purpose of sustaining the other defences set up by the defendant, and the trial having been concluded, the judge made a finding in favor of the complainant, and judgment was thereupon entered decreeing that the property described therein was property dedicated to public use, and that the right of the city to the possession and administration of such property must be recognized, and the defendant was ordered to deliver possession of the property to the city free from all incumbrances.

An appeal was taken from the judgment to the Supreme Court of the State of Louisiana, where it was affirmed, and the defendant below has brought the case here on writ of error.

Mr. Edwin T. Merrick for plaintiff in error.

Mr. R. A. Tichenor for defendant in error. Mr. Samuel L. Gilmore filed a brief for same.

MR. JUSTICE PECKHAM, after stating the facts, delivered the opinion of the court.

The defendant in error has made a motion to dismiss the writ of error on the ground of want of jurisdiction. We think it must be denied. The sole question in the case is in regard to the validity of the exception to the decision of the trial court

Opinion of the Court.

refusing to admit in evidence the judgment recovered in the United States Circuit Court in the action of the city of New Orleans against Klein.

The defendant herein in his answer specially set up such judgment, and claimed that under and by virtue thereof the city was concluded from maintaining its action; the state court refused to give effect to the judgment, and the denial of this right was excepted to by the defendant, and was also assigned as error in the state Supreme Court. In such case we think a Federal question exists. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, &c., Railroad v. Long Island Trust Company, 172 U. S. 493, 507, and cases there cited; Phoenix Insurance Company v. Tennessee, 161 U. S. 174, 184. Whether full faith and credit have been given the judgment of a Federal court by the courts of a State is a Federal question, and that question exists in this case.

Upon the merits we have simply to inquire whether the courts below erred in their decision refusing to admit in evidence the judgment in the chancery suit above mentioned.

The judgment in that suit was between the city as complainant and Klein as defendant, and it had reference to the proceedings of the marshal in the execution of his writ issued upon the judgment of Klein against the city. The defendant in this suit traces his title back to Lewis, who purchased upon the sale under the marshal's writ, and so when the defendant is sued in this action he stands as privy to one of the parties to the chancery suit, and can claim the same rights in the judgment therein as an adjudication, which Lewis or Klein could have claimed if either were in possession of the property, and this suit had been brought against the one in possession.

The law in relation to the effect of a judgment between the same parties is well known, but its proper application to particular cases is sometimes quite difficult to determine. The following authorities treat of the subject very fully and exhaustively: Cromwell v. County of Sac, 94 U. S. 351; Davis v. Brown, 94 U. S. 423; New Orleans v. Citizens' Bank, 167 U.S. 371; Southern Pacific Railroad v. United States, 168 U. S. 1; Delabigarre v. Second Municipality of New Orleans, 3 La. Ann. 230; Slocomb v: Lizardi, 21 La. Ann. 355.

Opinion of the Court.

In the first cited case, it was said that a former judgment between the same parties (or their privies) upon the same cause of action as that stated in the second case constitutes an absolute bar to the prosecution of the second action, not only as to every matter which was offered and received to sustain or defeat the claim or demand, but as to any other admissible matter which might have been offered for that purpose. Where the second action between the same parties is upon a different claim or demand, the judgment in the former action operates as an estoppel only as to those matters in issue or points controverted upon the determination of which the finding or verdict was rendered.

So in Davis v. Brown, supra, Mr. Justice Field, in delivering the opinion of the court, said in speaking of a prior judgment: "The judgment is not only conclusive as to what was actually determined respecting such demand, but as to every matter which might have been brought forward and determined respecting it."

In New Orleans v. Citizens' Bank, (supra, at p. 396,) Mr. Justice White, speaking for the court, said: "The estoppel resulting from the thing adjudged does not depend upon whether there is the same demand in both cases, but exists, even although there be different demands, when the question upon which the recovery of the second demand depends has under identical circumstances and conditions been previously concluded by a judgment between the parties or their privies."

To the same effect is Southern Pacific Railroad v. United States, supra.

The same rule is substantially laid down in the cases above cited from the Louisiana reports.

Now, what was the demand and what was the thing adjudged in the chancery suit between the city of New Orleans and Klein? In that suit the city alleged that Klein had seized under a writ of fieri facias, in his action against the city, certain property which was described in the complainant's bill, which he threatened to sell, and which was advertised to be sold on a certain day, and the city alleged "that the said John Klein has no right to issue the said writ of pluries fieri facias

Opinion of the Court.

in said suit, or to cause the seizure, advertisement and sale of the said property thereunder," and it set forth in its bill the grounds (already stated) for such an allegation.

The sole cause of action was the apprehended and threatened sale of the property, which sale, the complainant alleged, would be illegal. All the other facts set up in the bill were but the grounds justifying and proving, as contended, the allegation that Klein had no right to sell the property, and it was this illegality of the threatened sale that was the sole cause or foundation of the action; it was the matter in dispute and the subject of contest. If the property were not legally subject to seizure and sale, then it would clearly be an illegal sale if consummated, and that fact would be material in proof of the cause of action of the city.

Upon the trial the court adjudged that defendant had the right to sell the property, and it therefore dissolved the injunction and dismissed the bill, and judgment to that effect was duly signed and entered. This would seem to be a full and complete adjudication upon the right of defendant Klein to sell the property seized under his writ. That right would not exist if the property were not the subject of a legal sale. Whether or not it was thus subject was an inquiry which the court would have had jurisdiction to make had it been alleged in that suit.

It is, however, contended that as the city had only set up certain facts as the foundation of its action to prevent the alleged illegal sale of the property, the judgment only bound it as to those facts, and therefore it is now urged that the city in this action was at liberty to prove other facts which would also show that Klein had no right to sell the property, namely, that the property had long before the sale been dedicated to public use, and the city therefore had no right to alienate it, nor had any one the right to sell it upon an execution issued on a judgment against the city.

It is not disputed that if there were no question of a prior judgment in this case, proof that the land had been properly and duly dedicated for a public square to the public use and therefore had been withdrawn from commerce, would furnish a defence to the claim by any person of a right to sell the prop

Opinion of the Court.

erty under an execution upon a judgment against the city. New Orleans v. United States, 10 Pet. 662, 731, 736; Police Jury v. Foulhouze, 30 La. Ann. 64; Police Jury v. McCormack, 32 La. Ann. 624; Kleine v. Parish of Ascension, 33 La. Ann. 562; Leonard v. City of Brooklyn, 71 N. Y. 498.

Assuming the law to be as thus stated, the question in this case is, what effect has this judgment under discussion upon the rights of the parties?

The fact now alleged would have furnished in the chancery suit but another ground or reason upon which to base the claim of the city, that Klein had no right to sell the property under his writ. In other words, it would have been additional proof of the cause of action set forth in that suit. The city would have had the right to set that fact up in its bill and to have proved it on the trial, and, if proved, it would have been foundation for a judgment enjoining the sale of the property; but the fact would have been nothing more than evidence of the right of the city to obtain the injunction asked for in the chancery suit, and we think it was the duty of the city to set up in that suit and to prove any and all grounds that it had to support the allegation that Klein had no right to seize or sell the property.

The threatened sale might have been illegal for a number of reasons, based upon widely divergent facts, but whatever those reasons were, the facts upon which they rested were open to proof in the chancery action, and if the city desired the benefit of them, they should have been alleged and proved. It would seem to be quite clear that the plaintiff could not be permitted to prove each independent fact in a separate suit. Suppose the city had only set up the fact of the registry of the judg ment as a ground for enjoining the sale, and after a trial on that issue it had been beaten and judgment had gone against it, could the city after that have commenced another suit for the same purpose, and set up as a ground for the alleged illegality of the sale the assignment of the judgment by Klein? In such second action would not the judgment in the prior action conclude the city? If not, then on being beaten on a trial of that issue the city could commence still another action