Opinion ID: 755151
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Plaintiffs' Opportunity to Litigate the Issues in State Court

Text: 25 Collateral estoppel will only apply if plaintiffs had a full and fair opportunity in New York state court to litigate the issues that they now seek to relitigate in federal court. See In re Sokol, 113 F.3d at 306; Ryan, 62 N.Y.2d at 501, 478 N.Y.S.2d at 826, 467 N.E.2d at 490. Plaintiffs, as the parties opposing the application of collateral estoppel, bear the burden of proving that they were denied this full and fair opportunity. See In re Sokol, 113 F.3d at 306; Kaufman v. Eli Lilly & Co., 65 N.Y.2d 449, 456, 492 N.Y.S.2d 584, 588, 482 N.E.2d 63, 67 (1985). Under New York law, [a] determination whether the first action or proceeding genuinely provided a full and fair opportunity requires consideration of the realities of the [prior] litigation, including the context and other circumstances which ... may have had the practical effect of discouraging or deterring a party from fully litigating the determination which is now asserted against him. Ryan, 62 N.Y.2d at 501, 478 N.Y.S.2d at 827, 467 N.E.2d at 491 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted; alterations in original). Included among the factors to be considered are the nature of the forum and the importance of the claim in the prior litigation, the incentive and initiative to litigate and the actual extent of litigation, [and] the competence and expertise of counsel. Id. Substantially for the reasons stated by Judge Cedarbaum, we believe that plaintiffs have not met their burden of proving that they were denied a full and fair opportunity to litigate their claims in state court. See Hickerson, 997 F.Supp. at 423-24. 26 Accordingly, because the same issues decided by the state courts are dispositive of plaintiffs' claims under the First Amendment, and because plaintiffs had a full and fair opportunity to litigate these issues in state court, they are collaterally estopped from relitigating them in federal court.