Estate of Eide v. Tabbert

• Decision Date: 27 July 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-617,94-617
• Citation: 272 Mont. 180,900 P.2d 292
• Parties: ESTATE OF Robert EIDE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Jason TABBERT, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: Montana Supreme Court

Page 292

900 P.2d 292

272 Mont. 180

ESTATE OF Robert EIDE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Jason TABBERT, Defendant and Appellant.

No. 94-617.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Submitted on Briefs April 20, 1995.

Decided July 27, 1995.

Palmer Hoovestal, Helena, for appellant.

James P. Reynolds; Reynolds, Motl & Sherwood, Helena, for respondent.

GRAY, Justice.

Jason Tabbert (Tabbert) appeals from the judgment entered against him by the First Judicial District Court, Lewis and Clark County, in the amount of $55,579.11, and from the court's underlying order granting partial summary judgment to the Estate of Robert Eide on the issue of liability. We affirm.

In August of 1990, Robert Eide (Eide) suffered lacerations and a broken jaw in an altercation between himself and Tabbert. As a result of the altercation, the Lewis and Clark County Attorney filed a petition in Youth Court alleging that Tabbert was a delinquent youth for having committed the offense of aggravated assault against Eide. Following a jury trial in November of 1990, in which the jury found that Tabbert had committed aggravated assault, Tabbert was adjudicated a delinquent youth. Tabbert did not appeal.

Eide subsequently filed a tort action against Tabbert for assault and battery. After Tabbert answered the complaint, Eide moved for partial summary judgment on the issue of liability. He argued that the jury's finding in Youth Court that Tabbert committed aggravated assault against him, and the Youth Court's adjudication that Tabbert was a delinquent youth, established Tabbert's liability in the civil action as a matter of law. Eide subsequently was killed in an unrelated automobile accident and his estate was substituted as plaintiff. (The estate is referred to as Eide herein.)

In the meantime, Tabbert petitioned the Youth Court for postconviction relief and a new trial based on newly-discovered evidence. The "newly-discovered evidence" consisted of statements from witnesses to the altercation between Tabbert and Eide who were prepared to testify that someone other than Tabbert was responsible for Eide's broken jaw. The Youth Court denied the petition and Tabbert appealed. We determined that the evidence could have been discovered prior to trial through due diligence and, therefore, that it did not satisfy applicable "newly-discovered evidence" criteria. In re Matter of J.R.T. (1993), 258 Mont. 520, 523-24, 853 P.2d 710, 712. We held that the Youth Court did not abuse its discretion in denying Tabbert's motion for postconviction relief. Matter of J.R.T., 853 P.2d at 712.

Following our decision in Matter of J.R.T., the District Court granted Eide's motion for partial summary judgment on the liability issue. The court determined, based on the jury's aggravated assault finding and Tabbert's adjudication as a delinquent youth, that the doctrine of collateral estoppel applied to conclusively establish Tabbert's liability for purposes of the civil litigation.

The damage issue was tried to a jury and resulted in a verdict against Tabbert for $55,579.11. Tabbert appeals.

Tabbert argues that the District Court incorrectly applied the doctrine of collateral estoppel in granting partial summary judgment to Eide on the liability issue. He contends that, although the Youth Court jury determined that he committed an aggravated assault against Eide, the actual cause of Eide's jaw injury remains a fact issue to be resolved by the civil jury. On that basis, he contends that he should have been permitted to introduce evidence during the civil trial that someone other than himself caused Eide's jaw injury. A district court's conclusion that the doctrine of collateral estoppel applies is a legal conclusion which we review to determine whether it is correct. Holtman v. 4-G's Plumbing and Heating (1994), 264 Mont. 432, 435-36, 872 P.2d 318, 320.

The doctrine of collateral estoppel precludes litigation of issues determined in an earlier action. Anderson v. State (1991), 250 Mont. 18, 21, 817 P.2d 699, 701 (citation omitted). We expressly have held that collateral estoppel prohibits the litigation of an issue in a civil trial that has been litigated in a prior criminal trial. Aetna Life and Cas. Ins. Co. v. Johnson (1984), 207 Mont. 409, 414, 673 P.2d 1277, 1280. Indeed, we stated that "the rigorous safeguards against an unjust criminal conviction, especially the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt ... make collateral estoppel between criminal and civil trials less severe than between successive civil trials." Aetna, 673 P.2d at 1280. The Aetna rationale is applicable here, notwithstanding the difference between Youth Court proceedings and criminal proceedings in a district court, because the beyond a reasonable doubt standard applied to the Youth Court jury finding. See § 41-5-521(2), MCA.

For the doctrine of collateral estoppel to apply, the party asserting the doctrine must establish that: (1) the issue decided in the prior action was identical to that in the present action; (2) a final judgment on the merits was rendered in the prior action; and (3) the party against whom the doctrine is invoked was a party, or in privity with a party, in the prior action. Aetna, 673 P.2d at 1279. Here, it is undisputed that the second and third elements of the doctrine are satisfied. The second element is satisfied by virtue of the Youth Court's final adjudication of Tabbert as a delinquent youth based on the jury's finding that he committed the aggravated assault on Eide. Regarding the third element, Tabbert is the party against whom the District Court applied the doctrine and he was the party in the prior Youth Court action. Strict identity of parties is not essential under these circumstances, so long as the party against whom the doctrine is advanced remains the same or is in privity with a party to the prior action. Aetna, 673 P.2d at 1279.

All that remains is to determine whether the issue determined in the Youth Court proceeding is identical to the liability-related causation issue presented in Eide's civil action. This first element of collateral estoppel is the most crucial. Haines Pipeline Const. v. Montana Power (1994), 265 Mont. 282, 288, 876 P.2d 632, 636. However, "[t]he term 'issue' does not equate with the elements of a cause of action." Haines, 876 P.2d at 636. Moreover, collateral estoppel applies to all questions, including relitigation of factual matters, which were necessary for the prior judgment. Haines, 876 P.2d at 636.

The issue before us is substantially similar to that presented in Aetna. There, Wayne Johnson (Johnson) had been convicted of criminal...