Also known as: final judgment · final judgments · final decree · final decrees · final order · final decision
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A judicial determination that conclusively resolves the rights of the parties in a case and leaves nothing further for the court to decide.
After the information was filed, the trial court dismissed the charges against Felipe Figueroa on the ground that the prosecution could not prove an essential element. The dismissal order has not been reversed or vacated. The state may not now prosecute Figueroa for the same offense because the order necessarily decided a fact inconsistent with conviction.
Farah Fox was acquitted of robbing one victim when identity was the only contested issue. The state later charged her with robbing a second victim during the same incident. The acquittal is a valid and final judgment that bars the second prosecution under the Double Jeopardy Clause.
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Felicia Fuentes removed a state case to federal court. Before any final judgment, the district court discovered it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction. The court remanded the action to state court, and the remand order ended federal proceedings.
Fisher Foods sued Fumiko Fujimoto and obtained a default judgment. The complaint demanded only compensatory damages. The court entered judgment for that amount and refused to add punitive damages never requested in the pleadings.
Felix Franco was convicted of intentionally killing his aunt. In the later civil proceeding to determine whether he could inherit under her will, the criminal conviction conclusively established that he was the slayer under the preponderance standard.
Frontier Capital was convicted after trial of a felony punishable by more than one year in prison. In a later civil suit, the plaintiff offered the judgment to prove an element essential to the conviction. The court admitted the evidence under the hearsay exception.
A judgment is final once it has been entered after the information or indictment and has not been set aside, reversed, or vacated. It bars a subsequent prosecution when it necessarily decided a fact or legal proposition inconsistent with conviction.
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Yes. When identity is the only rational issue and the defendant is acquitted, the valid and final judgment embodies collateral estoppel under the Double Jeopardy Clause and bars retrial for a different victim of the same incident.
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The court must remand the case to state court. The remand order ends the federal proceeding and may include an award of costs and attorney fees incurred because of the removal.
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…remains liable, under the control of the court, to answer to any demand which may be established against the defendant by the final judgment of the court. But if there is no appearance of the defendant, and no service of process on him, the case becomes in its essential nature a proceeding in rem, the only effect of which is to…