issue estoppel

When an issue has previously been litigated and determined by a Court the parties to the proceedings and their privies are not entitled to challenge or contradict the judgment of the court in subsequent legal proceedings. The judgment of a court decides issues in dispute before it once and for all, and thus cannot be disputed by the same parties again before the same or another court in the event that issue estoppel applies. Issue estoppel applies to sums determined to be paid (or otherwise), decrees, declarations and other court orders which satisfy the requirements of this form of estoppel.

An issue estoppel applies to facts directly decided, and those matters which form part of decision which were necessary to making the finding of fact or law. Accordingly, matters decided forming the groundwork of those points, although not directly decided are also caught by issue estoppel provided those points are necessary and fundamental to the judgment.

Issue estoppel differs from cause of action estoppel in the following respects:

1. Issue estoppel relates to a particular issue, rather than the entire set of facts which is the subject of cause of action estoppel.
2. An issue may be determined at an interim stage of the previous proceedings on a matter such as a jurisdictional or procedural issue.
3. The subject matter of an issue estoppel is a subset of what might be relevant in cause of action estoppel, and as such focuses on specific issues of fact or law rather than all the material facts and cause of action that the parties are entitled to traverse in the litigants’ pleadings.
4. Issue estoppel may apply to different causes of action – so where cause of action estoppel may not be successful, issue estoppel may be. This is because issue estoppel focuses on specific findings of fact or law.

The previous adjudication of the court, regardless of its form, must be a res judicata and as such a final and conclusive judgment, finally determining the dispute on the merits. Issue estoppel may also be raised on the final judgment of the previous court in subsequent litigation.

For the purposes of private international law, foreign judgments are just as effective to base a defence of issue estoppel (although in non-English proceedings, the cause of action is not merged with the judgment: see doctrine of merger). The requirements to make out an issue estoppel raised from a foreign judgment:

1. The previous judgment must be derived from a court of competent jurisdiction.
2. The foreign judgment must be res judicata within the meaning of the lex fori (i.e. in the foreign judgment is final and conclusive from the perspective of the foreign court).
3. The foreign judgment must of a res judicata within the meaning of English private international law.
4. The issue in question raised in the subsequent English proceedings must be the same as that decided in the foreign proceedings, and must have been necessary and fundamental to the decision in the foreign court and not merely collateral. The issue in question need not be one that disposes of the substantive claim.
5. The parties to the previous litigation must be the same, or privies of those participating in the previous dispute.

In respect to foreign decisions, the court in the course of exercising special caution, will have regard to the pleadings, the judgment, the reasons for judgment (if any), the evidence presented to the adjudicating court and matters of procedure in the foreign court to verify that the issue in question has previously been judged.

Usage: The defendant successfully defended the English legal proceedings on the basis of issue estoppel by proving that the claim made by the claimant had previously been decided by the foreign court.

Related Words: cause of action estoppel; res judicata; pleadings; recognition of foreign judgments; foreign judgment; doctrine of merger; privy; anti suit injunction; litigation.