ADR
Justice Potter Stewart explained res judicata [or claim preclusion] as “a final judgment on the merits of an action [that] precludes the parties or their privies from relitigating issues that were or could have been raised in that action”; and, with respect to collateral estoppel, [or issue preclusion], “once a court has decided an issue of fact or law necessary to the judgment, that decision may preclude relitigation of the issue in a suit on a different cause of action involving a party to the first case.” (See Alien v. McCurry .)
