Opinion ID: 575125
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Appeal

Text: 10 McKinnon also intimates that the district court's ruling on the first motion was contrary to this circuit's law, and, consequently, the court's failure to follow the law bars the conclusion that its decision was on the merits. McKinnon's premise may well be accurate. Argento v. Village of Melrose Park, 838 F.2d 1483 (7th Cir.1988), for instance, supports the argument that, were the court to decide the first motion today, it would rule in McKinnon's favor. Argento, however, was decided after the court ruled on the first motion, and the res judicata consequences of a final, unappealed judgment on the merits [are not] altered by the fact that the judgment may have been wrong or rested on a legal principle subsequently overruled in another case. Federated Dep't Stores v. Moitie, 452 U.S. 394, 398 (1981) (citations omitted). 11 McKinnon's second motion is perhaps better characterized as an attempted subterfuge to avoid the consequences of this court's dismissal of his appeal. [A]n adverse judgment from which no appeal has been taken is res judicata and bars any future action on the same claim, even if an authoritative contrary judicial decision on the legal issues involved is subsequently rendered in another case. Federated Dep't Stores, 452 U.S. at 399 n. 4 (citation omitted); see Spiegel, 790 F.2d at 647. That rule governs this case. The court's order dismissing the first motion specifically warned the parties that its ruling caused inconsistency in this circuit's case law, and that it was dealing with an apparent inconsistency in Illinois' statutory law. After the district court's ruling this court decided Argento, which, most likely, is an authoritative contrary judicial decision. But, McKinnon did not appeal the first motion until it was too late so the motion became res judicata. 12 We find McKinnon's second motion barred by res judicata because the district court denied the first motion on the merits, and because McKinnon failed to appeal that ruling. 13 AFFIRMED.