Opinion ID: 203562
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: pertinent legal principles

Text: We begin with a précis of some pertinent legal principles. Our standard of review is familiar: we evaluate a dismissal for failure to state a claim de novo, accepting all well-pleaded facts delineated in the complaint and drawing all reasonable inferences therefrom in favor of the party contesting dismissal. Palmer v. Champion Mortg., 465 F.3d 24, 27 (1st Cir.2006); Jorge v. Rumsfeld, 404 F.3d 556, 559 (1st Cir.2005). The motion will be granted unless the facts, evaluated in that plaintiff-friendly manner, contain enough meat to support a reasonable expectation that an actionable claim may exist. Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1965, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007); Morales-Tañón v. P.R. Elec. Power Auth., 524 F.3d 15, 18 (1st Cir.2008). In passing upon a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, the reviewing court's focus on the well-pleaded facts is more expansive than might first be thought. Within that rubric, the court may consider matters fairly incorporated within the complaint and matters susceptible of judicial notice. In re Colonial Mortg. Bankers Corp., 324 F.3d 12, 14 (1st Cir.2003). Thus, where the motion to dismiss is premised on a defense of res judicata as is true in the case at handthe court may take into account the record in the original action. See, e.g., R.G. Fin. Corp. v. Vergara-Nuñez, 446 F.3d 178, 183-84 (1st Cir.2006); Boateng v. InterAm. Univ., 210 F.3d 56, 60 (1st Cir.2000). The fact that this is a diversity case adds another dimension to our task. A federal court sitting in diversity must apply state law to determine the preclusive effect of an earlier state court judgment. Kathios v. Gen. Motors Corp., 862 F.2d 944, 946 (1st Cir.1988). In the first instance, this means that the federal court looks to pronouncements of the highest court of the state. Id. When that court has not spoken directly to an issue, the federal court must make an informed prophecy as to the state court's likely stance. See Blinzler v. Marriott Int'l. Inc., 81 F.3d 1148, 1151 (1st Cir.1996). In undertaking this inquiry, the federal court may draw upon a variety of sources that may reasonably be thought to influence the state court's decisional calculus. While these sources are not arranged in any rigid hierarchy, the federal court as a general matter will start by inspecting analogous decisions of the state's highest court; then consider decisions of the lower courts of that state; then examine the precedents in other jurisdictions; then survey the collected wisdom found in learned treatises; and finally, mull any relevant policy rationales. See, e.g., Blinzler, 81 F.3d at 1151; Ryan v. Royal Ins. Co., 916 F.2d 731, 734-35 (1st Cir.1990). In conducting this tamisage, the federal court should pay particular attention to those sources that the state's highest court has endorsed in the past and to public policy considerations mentioned approvingly in that court's decisions. See Gibson v. City of Cranston, 37 F.3d 731, 736 (1st Cir.1994). In the final analysis, the federal court's objective is not to choose the legal path that it deems best but, rather, to predict what path the state court would most likely travel. See Kathios, 862 F.2d at 946.