Section 209: Res Judicata Bars Retrying Decided Matters

(1)No court shall try any suit or issue in which the matter directly and substantially in issue has been directly and substantially in issue in a former suit between the same parties, or between parties under whom they or any of them claim, litigating under the same title, in a court competent to try the subsequent suit or the suit in which the issue has been subsequently raised, and has been heard and finally decided by such court.

(2)The expression “former suit” shall denote a suit which has been decided prior to the suit in question whether or not it was instituted prior to it.

(3)For the purposes of this section, the competence of a court shall be determined irrespective of any provision as to right of appeal from the decision of that court.

(4)The matter referred to in subsection (1) must in the former suit have been alleged by one party and either denied or admitted, expressly or impliedly, by the other.

(5)Any matter which might and ought to have been made a ground of defence or attack in the former suit shall be deemed to have been a matter directly and substantially in issue in that suit.

(6)Any relief claimed in a suit, which is not expressly granted by the decree, shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to have been refused.

(7)Where persons litigate bona fide in respect of a public right or of a private right claimed in common for themselves and others, all persons interested in that right shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to claim under the persons so litigating.