Also known as: necessarily determine · necessarily determines · necessarily determining
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A judicial resolution of a contested issue that was essential to the outcome of a prior proceeding. The finding must have been actually litigated and formed a necessary basis for the judgment entered by a court of competent jurisdiction.
Nestor Navarro agreed to indemnify Northstar Logistics for cost overruns on a stadium project and selected counsel while directing all trial strategy in a suit brought by a subcontractor against the city. After the subcontractor lost, Navarro sued the city over the same overruns. The court treated Navarro as bound because the prior judgment necessarily determined that the city bore no liability for the overruns.
Nia Nkosi was acquitted of forgery after the court found reasonable doubt that she signed a client's name on a settlement check. Prosecutors later charged her with theft based on the same forged signature on that check. The acquittal necessarily determined that the state failed to prove Nkosi executed the signature, barring the theft prosecution.
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An acquittal necessarily determines a fact when the prior judgment could not have been entered without rejecting a proposition that the prosecution must prove in the second case. The Model Penal Code bars the later charge if that factual determination is inconsistent with an element the state must establish anew.
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No. A nonparty that assumed control over litigation in which it held a direct financial interest is treated as a party for preclusion purposes. Control through funding, counsel selection, and strategic decisions suffices to bind the nonparty to findings that were actually and necessarily determined.
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The issue must have been actually litigated and formed an essential basis for the judgment. A determination is necessary when the court could not have reached its result without deciding that precise question in the manner it did.
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No. Mere funding and advisory participation without authority over settlement or ultimate strategic direction fails to create the control required for privity. The agency remains free to litigate the same factual issue in its own enforcement action.
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…Sedgwick on Damages, 6th ed. 762, note 2. But, in considering whether a new trial should be granted upon that ground, the court necessarily determines, in its own mind, whether a verdict for a given amount would be liable to the objection that it was excessive. The authority of the court to determine whether the damages are excessive…