Mitchell v. Federal Intermediate Credit Bank
Supreme Court of South Carolina
164 S.E. 136 (S.C. 1932)
Mitchell (plaintiff) borrowed from the Federal Intermediate Credit Bank (Bank) (defendant), assigning as security the proceeds from a potato-crop sale worth $9,000 in notes, but the crop actually sold for $18,000 and Mitchell never saw any of the surplus. When the Bank sued Mitchell to recover the $9,000 owed on the notes, Mitchell raised these same facts only as a defense without filing a counterclaim, and won that suit; he then filed this separate suit to recover the $9,000 surplus, alleging the identical facts, but the trial court held the claim was barred as merged into the original suit.
Whether a defendant may rely on his opponent's nonperformance of a contract in defense without filing a counterclaim, and then later bring a separate claim against the opponent based on the same nonperformance for more than the amount for which he was originally sued.