Opinion ID: 464871
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Preclusion of Section 1983 Claims by State Court Judgments

Text: 14 Takahashi next contends that her claims brought under section 1983 may not be barred by a prior unsuccessful litigation in California state court. In Allen v. McCurry, 449 U.S. 90, 101 S.Ct. 411, 66 L.Ed.2d 308 (1980), the Supreme Court considered whether a Sec. 1983 claim brought in federal court was subject to collateral estoppel by a prior state court judgment where the state court had provided the federal plaintiff a full and fair opportunity to litigate his federal claims. The Court rejected the argument that Congress in enacting 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 intended to repeal or restrict the traditional doctrines of preclusion. Id. at 98, 101 S.Ct. at 417. In Migra v. Warren City School District Board of Education, 465 U.S. 75, 104 S.Ct. 892, 897-98, 79 L.Ed.2d 56 (1984), the Court explicitly extended the rule of Allen v. McCurry to cover claim preclusion, the aspect of res judicata asserted by the District, as well as collateral estoppel. 15 Takahashi seeks to distinguish Migra on the grounds that the plaintiff in Migra, unlike herself, could have proceeded first in a federal court. In Allen, however, the Supreme Court found that collateral estoppel was applicable to the plaintiff's claims notwithstanding the fact that the plaintiff, a former state criminal defendant, was forced to litigate his federal claim in the first instance in state court on pain of losing his right to habeas corpus relief. The Court stated, 16 There is ... no reason to believe that Congress intended to provide a person claiming a federal right an unrestricted opportunity to relitigate an issue already decided in state court simply because the issue arose in a state proceeding in which he would rather not have been engaged at all. 17 Id. 449 U.S. at 104, 101 S.Ct. at 420. We similarly conclude that any procedural disadvantages which might have accrued to Takahashi had she attempted first to litigate her Sec. 1983 claims in a federal forum are insufficient to justify an exception to the traditional doctrines of preclusion. 1