Occasionally, a party will try to get around the finality of a decision by making a “collateral attack” on its validity in a separate proceeding. That can work if you are attacking the jurisdiction of the tribunal to issue the prior ruling, but otherwise . . . well, I haven’t seen it work. (But there may be a case out there.) The plaintiffs in Bowman v. California Coastal Commission, case no B243015 (2d. Dist. March 18, 2014) were unusually imaginative in their attempt. Plaintiffs owned a coastal property. Their predecessor had applied for a coastal development permit to refurbish the residence on the property. After his death, his successors (plaintiffs)…
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Make the argument yours, not someone else’s
You represent an appellant in a state court action who claims the action is precluded by a prior federal court action because the plaintiff split his cause of action between the two lawsuits. Your first argument is under the longstanding “primary rights” standard applied by the California courts. Your second is that the court should apply the federal “transaction” standard, which is far more favorable to your position. Only one standard can apply, and you are asking the appellate court to apply a federal standard not previously applied by the California courts. Throw into the mix the fact that the continuing vitality of the California “primary rights” standard was recently…