res judicata

Literally, the thing has been decided, been adjudicated. State v Wear, 145 Mo 162, 192, 46 SW 1099. The principle that an existing final judgment rendered upon the merits, without fraud or collusion, by a court of competent jurisdiction, is conclusive of rights, questions, and facts in issue, as to the parties and their privies, in all other actions in the same or any other judicial tribunal of concurrent jurisdiction. 30A Am J Rev ed Judgm § 324. The effect of a judgment as res judicata appears in at least three aspects, viz. merger of cause of action, bar, and estoppel. Anno: 49 ALR2d 1038. A difference exists between the effect of a judgment as a bar to a second action between the same parties upon the same claim or demand and its effect in another action upon a different cause of action; in the former case, the judgment on the merits constitutes an absolute bar to the second action, being a finality, not only as to every matter which was offered and received to sustain or defeat the claim or demand, but also as to any other admissible matter which might have been offered for that purpose; in the latter case, the judgment is a bar only as to the matters actually litigated and determined in the former action, and not as to what might have been litigated and determined therein. Smith v Smith, 235 Minn 412, 51 NW2d 276, 32 ALR2d 1135.