## Facts

- Bobby G. Freeman was injured, and his infant daughter, Laura Freeman, was killed, when the car Freeman was driving collided in Mississippi with a truck driven by Kenneth R. Deis.
- Deis was acting within the scope of his employment for Lester Coggins Trucking, Inc.
- Freeman first filed a federal diversity action, suing Deis and Lester Coggins Trucking, Inc. for Freeman’s own personal injuries from the collision.
- That first case was tried to a jury, which found (by special interrogatory) that neither Deis nor Lester Coggins Trucking, Inc. was negligent; the court entered judgment for defendants and dismissed Freeman’s personal-injury claims.
- Freeman later filed a second federal diversity action under Mississippi’s wrongful-death statute on behalf of himself and four other statutory beneficiaries (Laura’s mother and three siblings) seeking damages for Laura’s death.
- Deis and Lester Coggins Trucking, Inc. moved for summary judgment, arguing that the prior federal judgment finding no negligence collaterally estopped relitigation of negligence in the wrongful-death suit.
- The district court granted summary judgment against Freeman and all other claimed beneficiaries based on collateral estoppel, and Freeman appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether the prior federal jury verdict finding defendants not negligent precluded Freeman from relitigating defendants’ negligence in his later wrongful-death claim arising from the same collision.
2. Whether the prior verdict also precluded the wrongful-death claims of Laura’s mother and siblings, who were not parties to Freeman’s earlier personal-injury action, based on privity or “virtual representation.”

## Decision

- The Fifth Circuit held that Freeman’s individual wrongful-death claim was barred by collateral estoppel and affirmed dismissal of that claim.
- The Fifth Circuit held that the other statutory wrongful-death beneficiaries were not bound by the earlier personal-injury judgment because they were neither parties nor in privity with Freeman, and “virtual representation” did not apply.
- The Fifth Circuit reversed the dismissal of the mother’s and siblings’ wrongful-death claims and remanded for further proceedings.

## Legal Principles

- Federal law governs the preclusive effect (res judicata and collateral estoppel) of a prior federal judgment, including a judgment entered in a federal diversity case.
- Issue preclusion applies when: (1) the issue in the later case is identical to the issue decided earlier; (2) the issue was actually litigated; and (3) the prior determination of the issue was a critical and necessary part of the earlier judgment.
- A party who previously litigated and lost an issue (such as defendants’ negligence) cannot relitigate that same issue in a later suit, even if the later suit seeks different damages or proceeds under a different cause of action (such as wrongful death).
- Nonparties are not bound by issue preclusion absent a recognized basis such as privity or a representative relationship that gives the nonparty a legally protected opportunity to be heard in the first case.
- Similarity of interests alone is not enough to bind nonparties through “virtual representation”; without privity or proper representation, separate statutory beneficiaries are not precluded by another person’s earlier loss.
- Summary judgment is proper as to a claim when issue preclusion removes a required element (here, proof of defendants’ negligence).

## Conclusion

The Fifth Circuit ruled that Freeman personally could not relitigate negligence in his wrongful-death claim after a federal jury had already found the defendants not negligent in his earlier personal-injury case, but it also ruled that Laura’s mother and siblings were not bound by that earlier judgment because they were not parties, were not in privity with Freeman, and were not “virtually represented,” so their wrongful-death claims could proceed on remand.


Freeman v. Lester Coggins Trucking, Inc., 771 F.2d 860 (1985)