Olmstead v. Olmstead

The decision in Olmstead v. Olmstead (282 App. Div. 946) would seem to me to be binding by collateral estoppel. To be sure, successive installments under separation agreements give rise to different causes of action, but where, as here, they arise out of the same agreement, the decision in an action on one installment of a question of fact or law which would be determinative of the right to recover other installments does, I think, amount to collateral estoppel. Here the father supported one of the children after 1950 and until she became of age. The mother had contracted by the separation…