The abandonment by the plaintiff of a judgment erroneously
granted against a defendant is not sufficient to defeat a special
plea of res judicata. This is evident from the judgment
recently delivered by the Johannesburg High Court in Wesbank v
Investment Auto Group Proprietary Limited.
Res judicata is an objection raised by a defendant that
the plaintiff's claim has already been finally adjudicated upon
by another court and can no longer be entertained by a court. To
successfully raise such an objection, the prior legal proceedings
must have been between the same parties, concerning the same
subject matter and based on the same cause of action.
In this case, Wesbank issued summons against three defendants.
Only the third defendant filed a notice to defend the action.
Consequently Wesbank filed an application for default judgment
against the first and second defendants only. The Registrar
referred the applications for default judgment to open court.
