Samuel Freeman Miller

“ There the judgment of the State court of Illinois on demurrer, in a former suit between the same parties, was held a bar, although it was intimated that if it had been an open question, this court might have differed with the Illinois court in the construction of the law. All decisions on demurrer must necessarily be on questions of law, for the demurrer admits the facts pleaded and only raises the questions of law which grow out of those facts. ”

“ If the principle contended for were true, there could be no estoppel by demurrer.
If, then, the jury were satisfied from the record in the former case, and from the testimony of the witnesses, that the terms of the contract on which that verdict was founded were the same as the special contract set out in the present suit, then the verdict and judgment in that case established the existence and validity of that contract for the purposes of this suit, and whenever it may be called in question between the same parties in relation to the same transaction. ”

“ If the law be, as claimed, that there can be no estoppel as to matter of law, but only as to matter of fact, what becomes of the estoppels by judgments rendered on demurrer? The authorities in favor of estoppels in this class of cases are numerous. The case of Goodrich v. The City, decided at this term, [3] is directly in point. ”