LAW 607 Lecture Notes - Lecture 60: Res Judicata, Collateral Estoppel

• School: University of Illinois
• Department: Law
• Course: LAW 607
• Professor: V Winship

Document Summary

Issue preclusion, or collateral estoppel, is a companion doctrine to claim preclusion. Therefore, there is no doctrine of merger in issue preclusion. A party who litigates a case to completion without challenging jurisdiction is ordinarily barred from claiming in a second action that the first court"s judgment is invalid for lack of subject matter or personal jurisdiction. Issue preclusion applies only if the second action involves exactly the same issue as the first. Although this is often a relatively straightforward determination, certain situations are difficult. Convinced that d acted intentionally, state prosecutes d for vandalism. In this state, any intentional destruction of property constitutes vandalism. State now brings a civil action against d, claiming conversion. Assume the action is not barred by claim preclusion. Like vandalism, a claim for conversion requires plaintiff to prove the intentional destruction of property. D argues issue preclusion, claiming the prior case found that.