The literal interpretation of res judicata is ‘a matter adjudged’.
Asia Commercial Finance (M) Berhad v Kawal Teliti Sdn Bhd [1995] 3 CLJ 783 – Peh Swee Chin FCJ
- “doctrine of res judicata is not confined to causes of action or issues which the Court is actually asked to decide or has already decided. It COVERS ALSO causes of action or issues or facts which, though not already decided as a result of the same not being brought forward due to negligence, inadvertence or deliberately, are so clearly part of the subject matter of the litigation and so clearly could have been raised, that it would be an abuse of the process of the Court to allow a new proceeding to be started in respect of them.”
- “What is res judicata? It simply means a matter adjudged, and its significance lies in its effect of creating an estoppel per rem judicature. When a matter between two parties has been adjudicated by a Court of competent jurisdiction, the parties and their privies are not permitted to litigate once more the res judicata, because the judgment becomes the truth between such parties, or in other words, the parties should accept it as the truth; res judicata pro veritate accipitur. The public policy of the law is that it is in the public interest that there should be finality in litigation – interest rei publicae ut sit finis litium.”
- Referring to Wigram V.C. in Henderson v Henderson [1843] 3 Hare 100 115 “The plea of res judicata applies, except in special cases, not only to points upon which the Court was actually required by the parties to form an opinion and pronounce a judgment, but to every point which properly belonged to the subject of litigation and which the parties, exercising reasonable diligence might have brought forward at the time.”
Spencer Bower and Turner, Res Judicata, 3rd Edition (1996): six (6) matters to be established in a plea of res judicata:-
- The decision was judicial in the relevant sense;
- It was in fact pronounced;
- The tribunal had jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter;
- The decision was final and on the merits;
- It determined the same questions as that raised in the later question; and
- The parties to the later litigation were wither parties to the earlier litigation or their privies, or the earlier decision was in rem.
General principles of res judicata is – to prevent a party from filing an action based on a cause of action which has been decided. The recognized exceptions have been decided in a Federal Court case of Scott & English (M) Sdn Bhd v Yung Chen Wood Industries Sdn Bhd [2018] 6 CLJ 271 – exceptions to res judicata are fraud and where evidence not available at the original hearing becomes available.