Potential Res Judicata Effect Of State Court Case Does Not Justify Colorado River Abstention
HUON v. JOHNSON & BELL (September 21, 2011)
The law firm of Johnson & Bell fired associate Meanith Huon in early 2008. Huon filed charges with the EEOC and the Illinois Department of Human Rights. He also filed suit in state court against several attorneys and the firm, alleging defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The state court dismissed the complaint on the ground that the allegedly defamatory statements were protected by either the qualified or absolute privilege. Huon appealed that decision. Meanwhile, Huon asserted race and national origin discrimination claims, and a state claim for tortious interference with prospective business relationship, in federal court, again naming the firm and several of its attorneys. The defendants moved to dismiss or, in the alternative, to stay under the Colorado River abstention doctrine. Judge Manning (N.D. Ill.) concluded that both suits arose out of the same core facts but that the lack of a final judgment in the state court case did not yet bar the federal case. She therefore decided to stay the federal case pending the resolution of the state appeal. Huon appeals.
In their opinion, Seventh Circuit Judges Posner, Rovner, and Wood vacated the stay and remanded for further proceedings. The Court noted that the Colorado River doctrine is a very narrow exception to a court's "virtually unflagging obligation" to exercise its jurisdiction. It is appropriate only in the most exceptional circumstances. The principal question is whether the cases are parallel and would be resolved by examining the same evidence. The Court concluded that much of the evidence Huon would need to prove discrimination would be irrelevant to his state court defamation and emotional distress claims. Even if the cases were parallel, the Court emphasized the exceptional circumstances required to justify a stay. The Court identified 10 factors in Adkins, many of which were not considered by the district court and those that were considered were considered rather perfunctorily. In any event, the Court concluded that the district court focused on the potential future res judicata effect of the state court appeal. That is not enough to justify the stay. The Court remanded the case to the district court "for another look."
Michael Rigney practices in the law offices of GVC Ltd. in Chicago. In this blog, he reports on select