''Taylor v. Sturgell'', 553 U.S. 880 (2008), was a

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

case involving

res judicata ''Res judicata'' (RJ) or ''res iudicata'', also known as claim preclusion, is the Latin term for "a matter decided" and refers to either of two concepts in both civil law and common law legal systems: a case in which there has been a final judgm ...

. It held that a "virtually represented" non-party cannot be bound by a judgment.

Background

Greg Herrick was seeking to restore a vintage 1930s airplane. He filed an FOIA request for technical documents with the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...

. The FAA found that the documents were trade secrets and denied his request, and the district court and the appellate court denied his appeal.Herrick v. Garvey, 298 F.3d 1184, 1193 (CA10 2002)
/ref> Later Brent Taylor, a friend of Herrick with no participation in the previous case, filed an FOIA request for the same documents through the same lawyer. He was denied, and in his appeal he sought to fix certain omissions and mistakes in Herrick's briefs. The district and appellate courts held that Taylor was precluded from litigating the issue because he had been "virtually represented" in the prior case.

Opinion of the Court

Associate Justice Associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some sta ...

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg ( ; ; March 15, 1933September 18, 2020) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by Presiden ...

wrote the opinion for a unanimous court, overturning the decision below by the

D.C. Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate cou ...

References

External links

* {{caselaw source , case = ''Taylor v. Sturgell'', {{Ussc, 553, 880, 2008, el=no , justia =https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/553/880/ , oyez =https://www.oyez.org/cases/2007/07-371 , other_source1 = Supreme Court (slip opinion) , other_url1 =https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-371.pdf United States Supreme Court cases 2008 in United States case law United States Supreme Court cases of the Roberts Court United States res judicata case law