Opinion ID: 768212
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Principles of Preclusion

Text: 24 Under the doctrine of res judicata, or claim preclusion, [a] final judgment on the merits of an action precludes the parties or their privies from relitigating issues that were or could have been raised in that action. Federated Department Stores, Inc. v. Moitie, 452 U.S. 394, 398 (1981); see, e.g., Balderman v. United States Veterans Administration, 870 F.2d 57, 62 (2d Cir. 1989); Teltronics Services, Inc. v. L M Ericsson Telecommunications, Inc., 642 F.2d 31, 35 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 978 (1981). However, a dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction is not an adjudication of the merits, and hence has no res judicata effect. See, e.g., Nowak v. Ironworkers Local 6 Pension Fund, 81 F.3d 1182, 1188 (2d Cir. 1996); Thompson v. County of Franklin, 15 F.3d 245, 253 (2d Cir. 1994). Further, while a previous judgment may preclude litigation of claims that arose prior to its entry, it cannot be given the effect of extinguishing claims which did not even then exist and which could not possibly have been sued upon in the previous case. Lawlor v. National Screen Service Corp., 349 U.S. 322, 328 (1955). 25 In its res judicata ruling in the present case, the district court noted that eight of St.Pierre's present claims, i.e., those other than for indemnification and contribution, were virtually identical to the claims originally asserted by St.Pierre in St.PierreI. The court stated that all of the original claims--except for one cause of action that had been dismissed [i]n a prior [St.PierreI] order, St.PierreIII, 21 F.Supp.2d at 141 n.4--had been dismissed in the St.PierreI opinion reported at 1993 WL 85757, and that the St.PierreI judgment thus barred St.Pierre's assertion of his present similar claims: 26 The complaint in St. Pierre I alleged eight causes of action for breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, malpractice, common law fraud and deceit, breach of contract and violations of federal and state statutory law.... The district court there granted the defendants' motions for summary judgment in their entirety.... 1993 WL 85757, at. That ruling was affirmed in all respects by the court of appeals. 28 F.3d at 276. In the complaint here, the third through the tenth causes of action are identical in all material respects to the eight causes of action in the St. Pierre I complaint. Those eight causes of action are, therefore, all barred by the doctrine of res judicata. 27 St.PierreIII, 21 F.Supp.2d at 141. 28 Our principal difficulty with this ruling is that the St.PierreI summary judgment dismissed St.Pierre's original claims not on their merits but only for lack of Article III standing. See St.PierreI, 1993 WL 85757, at  (granting defendants' motions which were tantamount to a challenge to plaintiffs' standing to maintain this action); St.PierreII, 28 F.3d at 275 ([i]n a thorough opinion, the [St.PierreI] court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendantsappellees on the basis that St. Pierre lacked standing because the proceeds of the lapsed policy were payable not to St. Pierre, but rather to Kenworth and another); id. at 276 (affirm[ing] substantially for the reasons stated in the opinion of the district court); St.PierreIII, 21 F.Supp.2d at 140 (noting that the St.PierreI court granted summary judgment to the defendants on the ground that because the proceeds of the insurance policy were payable to Kenworth rather than to St. Pierre, St. Pierre lacked standing to maintain the action). Since a dismissal for lack of Article III standing is a dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, see, e.g., Hirsch v. Arthur Andersen & Co., 72 F.3d 1085, 1091 (2d Cir. 1995); Thompson v. County of Franklin, 15 F.3d at 247-49, the St.PierreI judgment has no res judicata effect with respect to most of St.Pierre's claims. 29 The district court correctly ruled that St.Pierre's present claims for indemnification and contribution are not barred by res judicata. St.Pierre could not have asserted those claims in his prior action, for at the time of that action he had not been sued by American Iron. Indeed, this Court, in affirming the dismissal of St.Pierre's prior complaint, pointed out explicitly that St.Pierre would be able to assert claims against these defendants if and when a claim were made against him by Kenworth or any other person based on the failure to maintain insurance, but that such a claim by St.Pierre would accrue only when the claim was asserted against him. St.PierreII, 28 F.3d at 276. 30 We note that the district court stated that one of St.Pierre's original claims had been dismissed prior to the summary judgment dismissal in St.PierreI. See St.PierreIII, 21 F.Supp.2d at 141 n.4. The St.PierreIII court did not identify the claim to which it was referring, and since the record in St.PierreI is not before us, we know neither which claim was so dismissed nor whether that dismissal was a merits-type disposition that would bar relitigation of that claim. However, even if one of St.Pierre's claims for damages is barred by res judicata, he is not necessarily precluded from proving the underlying alleged acts of misfeasance in connection with his request for indemnification and contribution. A claim for indemnification and contribution must be premised on the defendant's breach of a duty to the plaintiff--whether grounded in express contract, implied contract, or tort. See generally Peoples' Democratic Republic of Yemen v. Goodpasture, Inc., 782 F.2d 346, 351 (2d Cir. 1986). An actual adjudication in St.PierreI of any of the alleged derelictions might of course preclude St.Pierre from pursuing such an allegation in support of his indemnification and contribution claims. See, e.g., Lawlor v. National Screen Service Corp., 349 U.S. at 326 (parties generally may not relitigate an issue that was litigated and actually decided, and whose resolution was necessary to the prior judgment). However, other than the fact that St.Pierre was not a loss payee on the insurance policy, and the nonexistence of his right to policy proceeds, defendants have not called to our attention any fact that was actually adjudicated in St.PierreI. 31 In sum, so far as is discernable from this record, most, if not all, of St.Pierre's claims for damages in St.PierreI were not dismissed on the merits; hence, the jurisdictional dismissal does not bar his assertion of those claims here. Nor, so far as we have been informed, has there been any prior adjudication of any of the factual allegations underlying those claims or his claims for indemnification and contribution. We thus conclude that St.Pierre, while barred from proceeding on any theory of entitlement to insurance proceeds, is not precluded from pursuing his claims for damages or his claims for indemnification and contribution on the theory that defendants caused him to be held liable to American Iron by reason of their alleged misfeasances.