Res Judicata (Litigator Series)

THIS CASEBOOK contains a selection of 157 U. S. Court of Appeals decisions that interpret and apply the doctrine of res judicata. The selection of decisions spans from 2009 to the date of publication. "[U]nder the doctrine of res judicata, a judgment 'on the merits' in a prior suit involving the same parties or their privies bars a second suit based on the same cause of action." Lawlor v. Nat'l Screen Serv. Corp., 349 U.S. 322, 326 (1955) . Senju Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. v. Apotex Inc., (Fed. Cir. 2014) . The underlying policies that the doctrine of claim preclusion [or res judicata] is designed to further are considerations of efficiency and finality:. The general rule of res judicata applies to repetitious suits involving the same cause of action. It rests upon considerations of economy of judicial time and public policy favoring the establishment of certainty in legal relations. The rule provides that when a court of competent jurisdiction has entered a final judgment on the merits of a cause of action, the parties to the suit and their privies are thereafter bound "not only as to every matter which was offered and received to sustain or defeat the claim or demand, but as to any other admissible matter which might have been offered for that purpose." [Citations omitted.]Senju Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. v. Apotex Inc., ibid. . [I]t is black-letter law that res judicata, by contrast to narrower doctrines of issue preclusion, bars all claims that were or could have been advanced in support of the cause of action on the occasion of its former adjudication . . . not merely those that were adjudicated." (citation omitted) . The four elements of res judicata are whether: (1) the parties are identical or in privity; (2) the judgment in the prior action was rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction; (3) the prior action was concluded by a final judgment on the merits; and (4) the same claim or cause of action was involved in both actions. Test Masters Educ. Servs., Inc. v. Singh, 428 F.3d 559, 571 (5th Cir. 2005) . Murry v. General Services Administration, (5th Cir. 2014)