Request By:
Mr. Mack J. Morgan, Jr.
President
Kentucky Retail Federation, Inc.
P.O. Box 237
Georgetown, Kentucky 40324
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Ruth H. Baxter, Assistant Attorney General
Your recent letter to our office requested an Attorney General's Opinion regarding claims filed in the Small Claims Division of District Court. Specifically, you asked:
(1) If an individual owes a retailer $700 as a result of the purchase of a television set, and choses to sue in the Small Claims Division for the maximum amount of $500, what is the legal status of the balance of $200? and
(2) If an individual owes a retailer a total of $700 as the result of a combination of three separate transactions in the amount of $250, $250, and $200, respectively, could the retailer file two actions either simultaneously or at different times combining the first two debts for a total of the $500 maximum allowable in Small Claims, and then bring the third transaction of $200 in a separate action?
These questions posed involve similar principles of law regarding "causes of action." It is a well established rule of law that a party plaintiff bringing a lawsuit must not split up his cause of action and bring separate suits for its parts.
Rodman v. Rogers, 109 F.2d 520 (C.C.A. Ky. 1940). The policy behind the law is to avoid multiplicity of actions, and to relieve a defendant from a multiplicity of actions arising out of the same cause.
Louisville & N.R. Co. v. Mack Mfg. Corp., 269 S.W.2d 707 (1954). The appliciability of this principle to contract actions similar to those you posed in your hypothetical questions is best stated in 1 Am.Jur. 2d 652-653, Actions, sections 135-136:
Separate actions may be brought upon separate and independent contracts, or for separate and distinct breaches of a divisible contract, as in the case of instalment obligations, subject only to the power of the court in proper cases to order them consolidated. * * *. But a single cause of action arising upon an indivisible contract or a breach thereof cannot be made the basis of several actions.
But one cause of action arises from the breach of an entire and indivisible contract, and if in the action to enforce that cause of action the plaintiff does not demand the entire relief to which he is entitled, he cannot afterward sue for the balance. If from the nature of the contract and the breach thereof, the party injured has sustained damages, and also has other property rights under the contract, he must include his whole claim in one action, and if he omits a part and recovers judgment for a part only, he cannot sustain another action for the omitted part.
See also,
Overstreet v. Greenwell, 441 S.W.2d 443 (1969).
Accordingly, the questions you posed can be answered as follows:
(1) If a retailer chose to file a suit for $500 of his $700 claim, then he would forfeit his legal right to claim the remaining $200 in another suit. This transaction cannot be split up into two separate actions inasmuch as it is a part of one entire and indivisible contract or contract.
(2) If, on the other hand, a retailer had three separate and independent contracts or agreements with a purchaser, he could bring three separate claims in Small Claims Division for recovery for each such claim. To simplify the proceedings, he could consolidate two of the claims in one action, and then sue at a later date on the third contract. However, it is very important to note that he could not split up his cause of action by suing on part of one of the contracts in his attempt to reach the $500 maximum limit. For example, if a purchaser owed a retailer $600 as a result of two separate transactions, one for $450 and one for $150, he could not "split up" the contracts and sue in Small Claims Court for $500 for one action and then bring another action for $100. This example is similar to the hypothetical you posed in question one and should not be confused with the situation in which separate and independent contracts can be sued upon.
I trust this opinion will clear up the questions posed by your members.