Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca11-14-14641/USCOURTS-ca11-14-14641-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Blocker Farms of Florida, Inc.
Appellant
Buurma Properties, LLC
Appellee

Document Text:

[DO NOT PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

________________________

No. 14-14641

Non-Argument Calendar

________________________

D.C. Docket No. 6:13-cv-00068-BAE-GRS

BLOCKER FARMS OF FLORIDA, INC., 

 Plaintiff - Appellant,

versus

BUURMA PROPERTIES, LLC, 

 Defendant - Appellee.

________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Southern District of Georgia

________________________

(June 13, 2016)

Before JORDAN, JULIE CARNES and JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

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Blocker Farms of Florida, Inc. appeals the district court’s grant of Buurma 

Properties, LLC’s motion for summary judgment based on the affirmative defense 

of res judicata. Whether res judicata bars a claim is a question of law that we 

review de novo.

1

 Ragsdale v. Rubbermaid, Inc., 193 F.3d 1235, 1238 (11th Cir. 

1999). In Georgia, “[t]hree prerequisites must be satisfied before res judicata 

applies—(1) identity of the cause of action, (2) identity of the parties or their 

privies, and (3) previous adjudication on the merits by a court of competent 

jurisdiction.” Waldroup v. Greene Cty. Hosp. Auth., 463 S.E.2d 5, 7 (Ga. 1995); 

see also O.C.G.A. § 9-12-40. For the third prong of this test to be met, the 

judgment must be final. See O.C.G.A. § 9-12-40 (“A judgment of a court of 

competent jurisdiction shall be conclusive . . . until the judgment is reversed or set 

aside.”); Mitchell v. Mitchell, 25 S.E. 385, 386 (Ga. 1896) (“It is only a final 

judgment upon the merits which prevents further contest upon the same issue

. . . .”). 

After the district court issued its order concluding that Blocker Farms’s

claim was barred based on res judicata because the parties had previously litigated 

the issue in the Superior Court of Tattnell County, the Court of Appeals of Georgia 

vacated the superior court’s judgment and remanded the case to the superior court. 

 

1 When giving a state-court judgment preclusive effect, we apply the res judicata law of 

the state whose court rendered the judgment. Kizzire v. Baptist Health Sys., Inc., 441 F.3d 1306, 

1308 (11th Cir. 2006).

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Thus, there has not been a previous adjudication on the merits by a court of 

competent jurisdiction. See O.C.G.A. § 9-12-40. Accordingly, we vacate the 

district court’s opinion and remand for further proceedings.2

VACATED AND REMANDED.

 

2 We note that the district court has the discretion to stay the proceedings pending the 

parallel state litigation under the abstention doctrine set out in Colorado River Water 

Conservation Dist. v. United States, 424 U.S. 800 (1976). Moorer v. Demopolis Waterworks & 

Sewer Bd., 374 F.3d 994, 998 (11th Cir. 2004). We express no opinion as to whether now the 

district court should exercise its discretion.

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