Effect of judgment - Next Generation Bar Exam

1. What are the elements of issue preclusion?

   The same issue was actually litigated, determined, and essential to a valid final judgment. The party against whom it is asserted must also have had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue.

2. Under the Restatement (Second), what preclusive effect does a judgment resting on two alternative independent findings have?

   Neither finding is given issue-preclusive effect. The losing party may have lacked incentive to appeal either finding; courts are divided on this point.

3. A plaintiff sues for property damage from a car accident and loses on the merits. She then sues the same defendant for personal injuries from the same accident. What bars the second suit?

   Claim preclusion. Both claims arise from the same transaction, so the personal-injury claim should have been brought in the first action.

4. Under the due process limits on binding nonparties, which relationship most commonly binds a nonparty to a prior judgment?

   Adequate representation of the nonparty's interests in a properly conducted representative action, such as a class action. The Supreme Court has rejected 'virtual representation' as a general basis for binding nonparties.

5. What are the elements of claim preclusion?

   A valid final judgment on the merits, the same claim, and the same parties or their privies. Claim preclusion bars claims that were or could have been raised in the first action.

6. What preclusive effect must a federal court give to a state court judgment?

   The same effect the courts of the rendering state would give it. The Full Faith and Credit statute, 28 U.S.C. section 1738, requires this.

7. Under the majority transactional test, when do two suits involve the same claim?

   When they arise from the same transaction or series of connected transactions. The test looks to a common nucleus of operative facts, not to the legal theories asserted.

8. What is nonmutual defensive issue preclusion?

   A new defendant's use of preclusion against a plaintiff who lost the issue in an earlier action. It prevents a plaintiff from relitigating the same issue against a series of defendants.

9. After an agency wins a ruling that a company's proxy was misleading, shareholders who could not have joined sue and seek to bar relitigation. What doctrine do they invoke?

   Nonmutual offensive issue preclusion. Courts may allow it where the defendant had full incentive to litigate and its use would not be unfair.

10. Under Parklane Hosiery, when may a court allow nonmutual offensive issue preclusion?

    In its discretion, considering whether the plaintiff could have joined the first action and fairness to the defendant.

11. What law determines the claim-preclusive effect of a federal judgment in a diversity case?

    The law of the state in which the federal court sat, unless incompatible with federal interests. Federal common law adopts the forum state's preclusion rules in diversity cases.

12. Under Rule 41(b), which involuntary dismissals do not operate as adjudications on the merits?

    Dismissals for lack of jurisdiction, improper venue, or failure to join a party under Rule 19. Other involuntary dismissals operate as adjudications on the merits unless the court orders otherwise.

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