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In re Carey11/26/2002
0. "Honesty and integrity are chief among the virtues the public has a right to expect of lawyers. Any breach of that trust is misconduct of the highest order and warrants severe discipline." In re Disciplinary Action Against Thedens, 602 N.W.2d 863, 865 (Minn. 1999). These principles are as applicable to lawyers who are party litigants as they are to lawyers serving in their representative capacity.
The CDC argues that respondents are collaterally estopped from denying the allegations of misrepresentation because the federal district court found that respondents had submitted false discovery responses. The collateral estoppel doctrine precludes parties from relitigating issues of ultimate fact that have previously been determined by a valid judgment.
Traditionally, collateral estoppel was limited by the concept of mutuality, which meant that a judgment could not be used for estoppel purposes unless both parties had been parties to the original judgment. However, this Court has since abandoned the mutuality requirement. Although collateral estoppel is more commonly invoked by defendants, it is also used by plaintiffs "offensively" to estop defendants from relitigating issues that have been determined by a prior valid judgment. This Court has also approved a variation of the doctrine called offensive non-mutual collateral estoppel that may be invoked where the plaintiff was not a party to the earlier judgment.
our factors should be considered when applying non-mutual collateral estoppel: 1) the identity of the issues involved in the prior adjudication and the present action, 2) whether the prior judgment was on the merits, 3) "whether the party against whom collateral estoppel is asserted was a party or in privity with a party to the prior adjudication," and 4) whether the party had a full and fair opportunity in the prior adjudication to litigate the issue for which collateral estoppel is asserted. In re Caranchini, 956 S.W.2d 910, 912-13 (Mo. banc 1997) (citations omitted).
Here, the only factor at issue is whether respondents "had a full and fair opportunity in the prior adjudication to litigate the issue for which collateral estoppel is asserted." Respondents had a full and fair opportunity sufficient to satisfy the requirements of due process. That conclusion is based on the Eighth Circuit's analysis of the issue:
e find that Carey and Danis received a hearing adequate to satisfy the dictates of due process. The letter was brought to the court's attention shortly before the noon recess. Some discussion was had between counsel and the court as to the origin of the letter and why it had not been produced. The court then compared the letter to various interrogatories and document requests and determined that the responses to them were plainly false. The court also noted the connection between the letter and the forty-two documents introduced earlier. Counsel was then permitted to argue to the court on the issue of prejudice. After lunch, defense counsel was allowed to offer another explanation as to why the letter had not been produced, and there was a significant amount of discussion between counsel and the court. The court then recessed for about an hour to review interrogatories, document requests, the responses, and the record. After the recess, the court recapped the discovery in the case and presented its conclusion that sanctions were appropriate. The court then invited defense counsel to argue in support of a sanction less drastic than that asked for by Chrysler. Defense counsel did so at length in a soliloquy covering five pages of transcript. The court then struck the defendants' answer.
Contrary to the defendants' clear asserti
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