estoppel by judgment
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 289 U.S. 620 - Tait v. Western Maryland Railway Co. · 1933Most cited · 911 citing opinions
The scope of the estoppel of a judgment depends upon whether the question arises in a subsequent action between the same parties upon the same claim or demand or upon a different claim or demand. In the former case a judgment upon the merits is an absolute bar to the subsequent action. In the latter the inquiry is whether the point or question to be determined in the later action is the same as that litigated and determined in the original action.
How the Supreme Court has restated “estoppel by judgment”
Each Supreme Court definition of “estoppel by judgment,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “estoppel by judgment”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “estoppel by judgment” — 1,327 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1913–1934
- ORIGINAL
Where the second suit is upon the same cause of action set up in the first suit, an estoppel by judgment arises in respect to every matter offered or received in evidence, or which might have been offered, to sustain or defeat the claim in controversy; but, where the second suit is upon a different claim or demand, the prior judgment operates as an estoppel only as to matters in issue or points controverted and actually determined in the original suit.
if in a second action between the same parties, a claim or demand different from the one sued upon in the prior action is presented, then the judgment in the former cause is, an estoppel 'only as to those matters in issue or points controverted, upon the determination of which the finding or verdict was rendered.' While a defendant must bring forward all purely defensive matter, he is not barred by a former judgment against him as to any matter which he was not bound to present and which was not in fact litigated.
res judicata scope