TROY LUMBER COMPANY v. Hunt

Defendant’s pleas in bar of res judicata (Sanderson v. Ins. Co., 218 N.C. 270, 10 S.E. 2d 802), and of estoppel by judgment (Bank v. Evans, 191 N.C. 535, 132 S.E. 563) go to plaintiff’s entire cause of action, and if sustained, will destroy it.

■ When a former judgment is set up as a bar or estoppel, the question is whether the former adjudication was on the merits of the action, and whether there is such an identity of the parties and of the subject matter in the two actions, and whether the merits of the second action are identically the same, as will support a plea of res judicata. Hayes v.…