Res Judicata

The normal and usual course of court proceedings concludes with the delivery of a judicial decision. Under Bulgarian legislation and legal doctrine, the decision of every state court becomes final and, accordingly, acquires what is known as the FORCE OF RES JUDICATA. Under the Code of Civil Procedure, decisions that are not subject to appeal, decisions against which no appeal has been lodged, and decisions in respect of which a cassation appeal has not been admitted for examination or has not been upheld become final. This, in turn, gives rise to res judicata. Res judicata imposes an obligation on the parties, in relation to the State, to bring the legal dispute to an end. Neither party may subsequently contest the correctness of what has been judicially established. The obligation not to contest applies to every element of the right established or denied by the court, including its legal classification and its amount. It may not be contested even by the party whose legal assertion has been upheld. Through its regulatory effect, res judicata aims to secure precisely this consistent conduct by the parties in relation to public order and the rule of law. Respect for res judicata consists in the obligation of every state authority, whether a court or another authority, to accept as its own the judicial determination vested with res judicata and to proceed from it when exercising its official powers in relation to the persons bound by res judicata. In this way, the protective function of res judicata is significantly expanded and extends far beyond the limits of the original dispute. Res judicata arising from criminal proceedings must be respected whenever it concerns civil-law relationships that determine criminal liability.

The obligation not to contest gives the legal position established by the court certainty and indisputability. The “matter adjudged” can no longer be the subject of a legally relevant dispute. Depending on whether the court has confirmed or denied the existence of the disputed right, res judicata operates to confirm or to deny that right. Under Article 298(1) of the Code of Civil Procedure, a decision becomes final only between the same parties, in respect of the same claim and on the same grounds.

Res judicata also includes what is known as the enforceability of the decision. This consists in the right to seek compulsory enforcement and is inherent only in judgments ordering performance, whereas the regulatory effect is inherent in all decisions as a direction by the court that future conduct must conform to the legal position judicially established. Enforceability consists in the right to require compulsory satisfaction of the disputed right confirmed by the court, as well as in the obligation to submit to compulsory enforcement. Consequently, like res judicata, the enforceability of a decision performs both a protective and a sanctioning function.

The final consequence of res judicata is that the resolved dispute may not be adjudicated again. Res judicata extinguishes the right to bring a second claim between the same parties concerning the same dispute. The court examines of its own motion whether this procedural condition is absent. The prohibition on re-adjudication safeguards the stability of the declaratory and regulatory effects of res judicata against the risk of a conflicting decision in the same dispute between the same parties resulting from a new claim. If two sets of proceedings are brought before two different state courts and the courts deliver two decisions with different outcomes, the legal dispute will in fact remain unresolved. The solution in such a situation is to set aside one of the two decisions, namely the incorrect one, which is the decision delivered later in time, regardless of its substantive outcome.