...invoices. The trial court conducted a hearing on the motions. Upon review of the arguments of counsel, the trial court entered summary judgment in favor of appellees based upon the doctrines of merger and election of remedies. The trial court concluded that, pursuant to these doctrines, the February 14, 1995 Bahamian default judgment barred Diamond Fertilizer from proceeding against the appellees in the Florida courts based upon the same underlying debt. This conclusion was incorrect.
The doctrine of...merger provides that a cause of action upon which an adjudication is predicated merges into the judgment and that, consequently, the cause of action's independent existence perishes upon entry of the judgment. See Vernon v. Service Trucking, Inc., 565 So.2d 905, 906 (Fla. 5th DCA 1990). The doctrine of...merger is based on the reasoning that the judgment is considered to be superior to the cause of action on which it is founded. 32 Fla. Jur. 2d Judgment and Decree § 113 (1994). By extinguishing the cause of action on which a judgment is based, the doctrine of...