Court : Kolkata
Decided on : Aug-14-1876
Reported in : (1877)ILR2Cal153
Richard Garth, C.J.1. In this case I have the misfortune to differ in opinion from my learned colleagues. The question which we have to decide is, whether the plaintiff in this suit is barred by the judgment in a former suit. It is said that she is so barred by the second Section of the Civil Procedure Code, which enacts ' that the Civil Courts shall not take cognizance of any suit brought on a cause of action' which has been heard and determined by a Court of competent jurisdiction, in a former suit between the same parties.'2. Is then the 'cause of action' in the present suit the same cause of action which was adjudicated upon in the former suit? This depends upon what is meant by the words 'cause of action,' and I believe it has never been seriously doubted, either here or in England, that the true meaning of that expression is not the claim itself, as for instance, the money, or goods, or land, which the plaintiff seeks to recover, but the grounds upon which that claim is founded. ...
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