OLLENNU J.
(His lordship referred to the pleadings, and continued:)
Upon those pleadings the plea that the dispute was res judicata by reason of the judgments pleaded became a preliminary issue to be determined. The plaintiff appeared in person the day hearing commenced. He was sworn, and had started to give his evidence when Counsel for the defendants asked that the preliminary issue should be determined first, because, if it were sustained, it would finally dispose of the whole suit.
The Court agreed to that procedure, and called upon the defendants to establish their defence. In support of their plea Counsel for the defendants put in certified copies of the writ of Summons in the suit pleaded, the judgments therein relied upon, the order for pleadings, the application (with supporting affidavit of the plaintiff herein) for joinder in that suit as co-defendant, the pleadings in the said suit, the record of a statement made by the plaintiff’s Counsel in that suit to the effect that his …