Opinion ID: 182335
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Motion to Amend Tort Claim

Text: In the first appeal of this case, we reverse[d] the district court's grant of summary judgment to KBS as to Wintermute's demand for coverage, but [w]e affirm[ed] in all other respects, McAninch, 491 F.3d at 775, including the dismissal of the tort claim. Following remand, the district court rejected Wintermute's motion to amend the dismissed tort claim based on the doctrines of res judicata and the law of the case. Under res judicata, a judgment on the merits in an earlier lawsuit bars a second suit involving the same parties based on the same cause of action. Prof'l Mgmt. Assocs., Inc. v. KPMG LLP, 345 F.3d 1030, 1032 (8th Cir.2003). The requirements for application of res judicata are: 1) a final judgment on the merits, 2) based on proper jurisdiction, 3) between the same parties, and 4) based on the same claims or causes of action. Yankton Sioux Tribe v. U.S. Dep't of Health & Human Servs., 533 F.3d 634, 639 (8th Cir.2008). The first requirement is met because res judicata applies to all final claims, even if other claims within a case remain alive. See Lair v. Oglesby, 14 F.3d 15, 17 n. 2 (8th Cir.1993) ( [R]es judicata can apply to prevent reassertion of dismissed claims, even though there remain live claims in the same litigation); Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 13, comment e (1982) (judgment may be final as to part of an action or claim, with action continuing as to rest). There is no dispute that the district court reached the merits of the tort claim and this court affirmed the merits of that disposition, making the dismissal of the tort claim final. Neither do the parties dispute jurisdiction or that the prior judgment involved the same parties. As for the last requirement that the prior judgment involve the same causes of action, a prior judgment binds a party `not only as to every matter which was offered and received to sustain or defeat the claim or demand, but as to any other admissible matter which might have been offered for that purpose.' Yankton Sioux Tribe, 533 F.3d at 640 (quoting Comm'r v. Sunnen, 333 U.S. 591, 597, 68 S.Ct. 715, 92 L.Ed. 898 (1948)). Wintermute received the crime bond file on March 16, 2005, over two months before the district court granted summary judgment to KBS on the tort claim. Wintermute did not formally attempt to amend her malicious interference claim to allege that KBS interfered with her defense of the noncovered counts until over two years later, after our opinion in the appeal of that judgment. [2] The district court's judgment therefore covers a tort claim related to the noncovered counts, as those could have been included in the original claim but were not. Because the doctrine of res judicata would have foreclosed the claims Wintermute sought to add to her complaint, any amendment would have been futile. [3] The district court therefore did not abuse its discretion in denying Wintermute leave to amend her complaint. See Popoalii v. Corr. Med. Servs., 512 F.3d 488, 497 (8th Cir.2008) (motion to amend complaint properly denied if amendment would be futile).