Topeka ? The Kansas Court of Appeals on Friday said prosecutors cannot dismiss charges in a case, only to refile the same charges again, in hopes of getting a more favorable pretrial ruling.

The case is for a Clay County man, Dominic Parry, who was arrested in December 2012 for felony possession of marijuana as a repeat offender and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.

The arrest came after police responded to a neighbor’s report of a strong smell of marijuana smoke coming from the apartment that Parry shared with his girlfriend and their 2-year-old son.

A district court judge suppressed evidence that police had obtained at the scene, ruling that officers did not have probable cause or a valid warrant to search the home. In a separate appeal, a three-judge panel of the appeals court upheld that suppression last year.

Four days later, prosecutors dismissed that case and immediately filed a new, virtually identical case alleging the same charges.

Again, Parry’s defense lawyers filed a motion to suppress the evidence, but the state countered with a different argument, claiming “exigent circumstances,” and asserting that the evidence eventually would have been found anyway.

But the trial court was not persuaded and granted the motion to suppress a second time.

In a 2-1 ruling Friday, another appeals court panel said that was an improper move, citing what is called the “law of the case” doctrine. That’s a legal principle that says once the highest appellate court has ruled once on an issue, that court will not change its ruling in a subsequent appeal of the same case.

Writing for the majority, Judge Gordon Atcheson said the doctrine prevents a party from “serially litigating an issue already presented and decided on appeal in the same proceeding.” Judge Michael Buser joined in that opinion.

Judge Kathryn Gardner dissented. She wrote that the “law of the case” doctrine is discretionary policy, and it was not raised by attorneys at the trial court or on appeal.