Georgia Code
Article 2 - Effect of Judgments
§ 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.
History of Code section.
This Code section is derived from the decision in National Bank v. Southern Porcelain Mfg. Co., 59 Ga. 157 (1877).
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).