Partmar Corporation et al. v. Paramount Pictures Theatres Corp. et al. (347 U.S. 89)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 8, 1954 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 347 U.S. 89 · 74 S. Ct. 414
- Decided
- February 8, 1954
- Term
- October Term 1953
- Vote
- 5–2
- Majority author
- Justice Reed
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Reed delivered the opinion of the Court. This case presents a matter of federal practice involving inconsistent positions by litigants in court proceedings. We have often held that under the doctrine of res judicata a judgment entered in an action conclusively settles that action as to all matters that were or might have been litigated or adjudged therein. But a prior judgment between the parties has been held to operate as an estoppel in a suit on a cause of action different from that forming the basis for the original suit “only as to those matters in issue or points controverted, upon the determination of which the finding or verdict was rendered.” This latter aspect of res judicata is the doctrine of collateral estoppel by judgment, established as a procedure for carrying out the public policy of avoiding repetitious litigation. Petitioners entered counterclaims in a suit against them by respondent. These counterclaims were dismissed by the trial court upon determination of the original suit for petitioners and against respondents. The cause of action stated in petitioners’ counterclaims is based upon a controverted personal right that had not been adjudged and therefore res judicata is no bar to the claimed right of recovery. Respondent, however, in its original suit had raised an issue, determinative of its cause of action, which had been therein…
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