Estoppel/Res Judicata where monies already sought in liquidation?

brophs

Hi,

I'm curious what people make of this:

A builder buys goods from a supplier. He believes he was acting on behalf of Builders Ltd. and has proof of that. Builders Ltd. falls into financial trouble. The supplier issues proceedings against the builder personally notwithstanding the builder's opinion that they were dealing with Builders Ltd.

After issuing the proceedings the supplier then attends the creditors' meeting and registers their debt as against the company as being the same debt (same invoice numbers, debts etc.) sought in the proceedings against the builder personally. There are no monies left and the supplier receives nothing from the liquidation of the company.

Subsequent to this the supplier continues with the proceedings against the builder personally.

I'm curious to know whether this is an issue which has come up in the past whereby the Plaintiff might be estopped or where Res Judicata might be argued on the basis that they have already had their answer in law, so to speak. Or does the fact that they are suing a different party - albeit, it will be argued, wrongly - preclude this?

Ta.

Victor

We can't do your homework.

You need to go through the various possibilities of the case and deal with each principle and quote relevant cases.

However, the result of the case will be dependent on the facts of the case, past behaviour, the timeline of events and potentially the behaviour of the builder in dealing with the invoice.

brophs

Victor wrote: »

We can't do your homework.

You need to go through the various possibilities of the case and deal with each principle and quote relevant cases.

However, the result of the case will be dependent on the facts of the case, past behaviour, the timeline of events and potentially the behaviour of the builder in dealing with the invoice.

It's not homework. It's a professional thing. I just won't have the time to look at it for a while and as a curiosity I was hoping someone on here might have come across something similar in the past.

valleyoftheunos

Law of agency would be the more appropriate area to investigate here I would think.