---
title: O.C.G.A. § 9-12-42. Judgment no bar absent decision on merits.
collection: code
id: 9-12-42
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 9-12-42 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/9-12-42
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/9-12-42.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/9-12-42/text
source_url: https://archive.org/download/gov.ga.ocga.2024/T09%20Ch12-16%20%28V7A%29%202015.pdf#page=106
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/9-12.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/9-12-41.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/code/9-12-43.md
index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: CIVIL PRACTICE / VERDICT AND JUDGMENT / EFFECT OF JUDGMENTS
---

# O.C.G.A. § 9-12-42. Judgment no bar absent decision on merits.

Where the merits were not and could not have been in question, a former recovery on purely technical grounds shall not be a bar to a subsequent action brought so as to avoid the objection fatal to the first. For a former judgment to be a bar to subsequent action, the merits of the case must have been adjudicated.

## History

Civil Code 1895, § 5095; Civil Code 1910, § 5679; Code 1933, § 110-503.

## Law Reviews

For note discussing the requirement that an adjudication be on the merits for the principles of res judicata to apply, see 11 Ga. L. Rev. 929 (1977).

For case comment, ‘‘Yost v. Torok and Abusive Litigation: A New Tort to Solve an Old Problem,’’ see 21 Ga. L. Rev. 429 (1986).

## History of Code Section.

This Code section is derived from the decision in National Bank v. Southern Porcelain Mfg. Co., 59 Ga. 157 (1877).