Opinion ID: 1088154
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: whether an ordinance held to be constitutional by the united states court of appeals for the fifth circuit can be challenged in state court by the same plaintiff on different constitutional grounds and found constitutional?

Text: The City argues that Lakeland is precluded from raising the claim that the ordinance is unconstitutional based on the notion of vagueness and ambiguity. The City contends that when Lakeland challenged the constitutionality of the ordinance pertaining to the time, place, manner analysis in Lakeland Lounge, supra, then Lakeland should have also raised any other constitutional issues as well. Furthermore, the City contends that since the federal court remanded this case in City of Jackson, Miss. v. Lakeland Lounge of Jackson, Inc., 147 F.R.D. 122, then the federal court ruled that there was no federal question and that the ordinance had been determined constitutional. Therefore, the City contends that Lakeland is precluded from challenging the constitutionality of the ordinance based on the doctrine of res judicata. The doctrine of res judicata requires the presence of four identities: (1) identity of the subject matter of the action; (2) identity of the cause of action; (3) identity of the parties to the cause of action; (4) identity of the quality or character of a person against whom the claim is made. Dunaway, 422 So.2d at 751; Mississippi Employment Security Commission v. Georgia Pacific Corp., 394 So.2d 299 (Miss. 1981); Cowan v. Gulf City Fisheries, Inc., 381 So.2d 158 (Miss. 1980); Standard Oil Co. v. Howell, 360 So.2d 1200 (Miss. 1978). If all four identities are present, then the parties are precluded from relitigating any issues in a subsequent lawsuit if decided in a prior lawsuit. [1] Dunaway, at 751; Pray v. Hewitt, 254 Miss. 20, 179 So.2d 842 (1965); Golden v. Golden, 246 Miss. 562, 151 So.2d 598 (1963). Furthermore, res judicata is conclusive not only of what was actually contested, but also all matters that might have been litigated and determined in that suit. Pray, 254 Miss. at 20, 179 So.2d 842. All claims which have been litigated in a prior suit, as well as all claims which should have been litigated in the prior suit, are barred from relitigation under the doctrine of res judicata. Johnson v. Howell, 592 So.2d 998, 1002 (Miss. 1991); Riley v. Moreland, 537 So.2d 1348, 1354 (Miss. 1989); Dunaway, at 751. Where one has a choice of more than one theory of recovery for a given wrong, she may not assert them serially in successive actions but must advance all at once on pain of the bar of res judicata.  Walton v. Bourgeois, 512 So.2d 698, 702 (Miss. 1987). Factor 1, identity of the subject matter, is the zoning ordinance and its constitutionality. Factors 3 and 4, concerning the parties to the action, are the City and Lakeland. Thus, factors 1, 3, & 4 meet the identity requirement. The only real question is whether factor 2, the identity of the cause of action, is the same. Identity of the cause of action exists when there is a commonality in the underlying facts and circumstances upon which a claim is asserted and relief sought from the two actions. Riley, 537 So.2d at 1354, citing Walton, 512 So.2d at 701. Lakeland initiated litigation seeking to have the ordinance declared unconstitutional because the City was interfering with the free exercise of a right protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. City of Jackson, 800 F. Supp. at 456. The Fifth Circuit ruled that the ordinance and the City's actions were constitutional. While the federal court cases determined the constitutionality of the City's public policy consideration involving the secondary effects of adult entertainment and the pending ordinance doctrine, the underlying issue was topless entertainment. Arguably Lakeland contested one aspect of the ordinance in the first line of cases and now raises a more specific challenge which the courts have not yet determined. However, in light of case law, Lakeland should have challenged the specific language of specified anatomical areas when it challenged the constitutionality of the City's conduct and intentions. Because a party may not relitigate and attempt to elude res judicata by raising a new legal theory, Judge Dillard was incorrect in not finding that Lakeland's challenge to the constitutionality of the ordinance was barred.