UNSWORTH, F.J. (Delivering the Judgment of the Court):
This is an appeal from a judgment by Mr. Justice H. S. Palmer in favour of the respondents, and the reasons for that judgment are to be found in a decision made by him on preliminary points relating to res judicata. In that decision the learned trial Judge held that Native Court case No. 369 of 1944 was “a case between the same parties and concerning the same piece of land,” and, if that be so, the judgment of the Native Court would operate as an estoppel by way of res judicata.
The appellant appealed to this Court, and learned Counsel argued that the learned trial Judge erred in holding that the issues raised in the present case were res judicata. In the first place, learned Counsel submitted that the parties to the present representative action are different from those in the earlier Native Court case, which, from the record, appears to have been a personal claim by a man named Antai Utis. In the second place, it was argued tha…