What is the test for res judicata preventing a plaintiff from asserting a different cause of action?
The following excerpt is from Costantini v. Trans World Airlines, 681 F.2d 1199 (9th Cir. 1982):
4 Lester v. NBC, 217 F.2d 399, 400 (9th Cir. 1954), cert. denied, 348 U.S. 954, 75 S.Ct. 444, 99 L.Ed. 746 (1955) ("a judgment's finality applies to facts which might have been pleaded with reference to the same event as well as to those actually pleaded").
5 Scoggin v. Schrunk, 522 F.2d 436, 437 (9th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1066, 96 S.Ct. 807, 46 L.Ed.2d 657 (1976) (res judicata bars "assertion of every legal theory ... that might have been raised" in first action).
6 Harris v. Jacobs, 621 F.2d 341, 343 (9th Cir. 1980) ("(r)es judicata preclusion extends only to claims that arise out of the same 'cause of action' asserted in the prior action").
7 No single criterion can decide every res judicata question; identity of causes of action "cannot be determined precisely by mechanistic application of a simple test." Abramson v. University of Hawaii, 594 F.2d 202, 206 (9th Cir. 1979).
8 See note 1 supra.
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