Opinion ID: 75761
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Applying Full Faith and Credit to the New York Judgment

Text: 22 Although the district court stressed that its decision was based primarily on the law in effect at the time of Waldo's death, its conclusion was plainly predicated on the New York litigation that established John and Russell as the legally recognized children of Mickey. R5-218 at 4-10. The district court purportedly applied the Full Faith and Credit Clause to the New York judgment, which states: 23 The records and judicial proceedings of any court of any such State, Territory or Possession, or copies thereof, shall be proved or admitted in other courts within the United States and its Territories and Possessions and ... shall have the same full faith and credit in every court within the United States and its Territories and Possessions as they have by law or usage in the courts of such State, Territory and Possessions from which they are taken. 24 28 U.S.C. § 1738. However, it failed to address the well established law that a federal court cannot give preclusive effect to a state court order, in subsequent litigation, without determining whether the state from which the order was rendered would give that order preclusive effect through the operation of the rendering state's law of res judicata and collateral estoppel. Shields v. Bellsouth Advertising and Pub. Co., 228 F.3d 1284, 1288 (11th Cir.2000). Under New York law, res judicata precludes re-litigation by parties and their privies of any matters that were necessarily decided in a prior action. Thomas v. New York City, 814 F.Supp. 1139, 1148 (E.D.N.Y.1993). To establish collateral estoppel under New York law, two requirements must be satisfied: (1) the party seeking the benefit of collateral estoppel must prove that the identical issue was necessarily decided in the prior action and is decisive in the present action; and (2) the party to be precluded from re-litigating... must have had a full and fair opportunity to contest the prior determination. D'Arata v. New York Central Mut. Fire Ins. Co., 76 N.Y.2d 659, 664, 563 N.Y.S.2d 24, 564 N.E.2d 634 (1990). 25 The district court concluded that full faith and credit must be given to the New York court's judgment that John and Russell are the legal Children of Mickey, and that issue was precluded from being litigated again. However, the issue before this court is whether John and Russell constitute child or children within the meaning of Waldo's will. The New York judgment was not a filiation proceeding. It was an estoppel order that prohibited Martha and Charles from contending that Mickey was not the father of the Children. The issue of paternity was not fully litigated, and therefore, the doctrine of full faith and credit is inapplicable. 26 Furthermore, the Contingent Legatees did not have a full and fair opportunity to litigate their interests. For a prior determination to be held against a party in a subsequent proceeding, the party must have been a party or in privity with a party to the prior proceeding. Id. at 664, 563 N.Y.S.2d 24, 564 N.E.2d 634. New York courts have defined privity as a mutually successive relationship of the same rights to the same property. Gramatan Home Investors Corp. v. Lopez, 46 N.Y.2d 481, 414 N.Y.S.2d 308, 386 N.E.2d 1328, 1332 (1979). Privity also exists when there is a relationship between the litigant in the current suit and a party to the prior suit such that the interests of the nonparty can be said to have been represented in the prior proceeding. Green v. Santa Fe Indus., 70 N.Y.2d 244, 519 N.Y.S.2d 793, 514 N.E.2d 105, 108 (1987). 27 The district found that there was no basis to conclude that the Contingent Legatees were necessary parties to the New York litigation, and as a result, the New York judgment was not subject to collateral attack. The Contingent Legatees do not contest the New York order's validity, nor do they doubt that it is binding on the parties to the New York action. Instead, the Contingent Legatees correctly argue that the New York order is not entitled to preclusive effect in this case because they did not have a full and fair opportunity to litigate their interests in the prior proceeding. Accordingly, the Contingent Legatees were not parties nor privies to the New York litigation and, therefore, are not bound by any of the orders nor the judgment that arose from it.