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subsequent suit any issue of fact actually litigated and essential to a valid and final personal
judgment in the first action.’” Plofchan v. Plofchan, 299 Va. 534, 543 (2021) (alteration in
original) (quoting Funny Guy, 293 Va. at 142). Relatedly, “claim preclusion pre[vents] a party
from continuing to litigate claims stemming from the same cause of action against the same
party.” County of Henrico v. O’Neil, 75 Va. App. 312, 322 (2022). It “treats unasserted claims
as being subsumed into the disposition of related, previously adjudicated, claims arising out of
the same cause of action.” Id. (quoting Brock v. Voith Siemens Hydro Power Generation, 59
Va. App. 39, 45 (2011)). “Thus, the ‘effect of a final decree is not only to [bind] the parties as to
every question actually raised and decided, but as to every claim which properly belonged to the
subject of litigation and which the parties, by the exercise of reasonable diligence, might have
raised at the time.’” Funny Guy, 293 Va. at 147 (quoting Smith v. Holland, 124 Va. 663, 666
(1919) (emphasis added)).
A litigant who has “failed to avail himself of” the “opportunity to” “present [his] . . .
grievance[s]” “must accept the consequences” of that failure. Vital Link, Inc. v. Hope, 69
Va. App. 43, 59 (2018) (quoting Brock, 59 Va. App. at 46). Res judicata precludes claims only
if they “accrue[d] prior to the litigation triggering the bar.” See Funny Guy, 293 Va. at 159.
B. The Relationship Between Res Judicata and Joinder
The doctrine of res judicata is intertwine d with the rules allowing joinder. Although a
plaintiff is not required to join all possible claims, claims that can be joined may be joined. See
Code § 8.01-272; Rule 1:4(k); Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 24 cmt. h (A.L.I. 1982).
The principle that “[j]oinder is permissive” “means [merely] that a trial court cannot compel a
claimant, at his opponent’s insistence, to assert an additional claim if he chooses not to.” Funny
Guy, 293 Va. at 153. Jump to an indexed page (12 of 12)