Griffin v. Holiday Inns of America

WALKER, Justice.

The principal question presented by this appeal is whether a take-nothing judgment in a suit on an express contract to furnish labor and material is res judicata of a second suit on the quantum meruit between the same parties and involving labor and material furnished under the same contract. We hold that although the present suit is on a cause of action different from that asserted by plaintiff in the first suit, the earlier judgment is res judicata because the claim in quantum meruit was a compulsory counterclaim to defendants’ cross-action for breach of contract in that…