Campbell v. Illinois Department of Corrections

907 F. Supp. 276, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17710, 1995 WL 704473
District Court, N.D. Illinois·Decided November 28, 1995·No. No. 92 C 3265·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

ANN CLAIRE WILLIAMS, District Judge.

Plaintiff Don Campbell brings this claim against the Illinois Department of Corrections, Michael O’Leary, Howard Peters, Charles Williams, John Groves, Michael Lane and Carol Mills, alleging that defendants kept him imprisoned beyond his legal release date in violation of the Eighth Amendment and the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Prior to this suit, plaintiff sought and obtained habeas corpus relief ordering his immediate release from custody. Defendants’ move for summary judgment on the grounds that the doctrine of res judicata bars plaintiffs Section 1983 claim for damages.1 For the reasons stated below, the court denies defendants’ motion.2

Background

In October 1983, plaintiff Don Campbell was convicted of residential burglary and sentenced to four and one half years imprisonment. (Defs. 12(M) Statement ¶ 10.) On February 29, 1986 he commenced a two year Mandatory Supervised Release (“M.S.R.”) term. (Id. ¶ 14.) On July 23,1986 the police arrested Campbell for unlawful use of a weapon. He began serving a two year sentence for that crime on December 10, 1986. (Id. 115.) Campbell’s M.S.R. violation enhanced his new sentence to include the remainder of his M.S.R. time as well as additional time not served from his previous sentence in prison. (Id. ¶¶ 19, 21, 26, 27, 30.)

Campbell suspected errors in his total sentence calculation and wrote numerous letters to prison officials. Dissatisfied with the way the prison officials handled his complaints, Campbell filed a state habeas corpus petition on April 8, 1988. (Id. ¶ 45.) In an unpublished opinion, the Third District Appellate Court of Illinois found that the plaintiffs incarceration exceeded his maximum sentence and remanded the case back to the circuit court. Campbell v. Illinois Department of Corrections, 907 F.Supp. 1173, 1176 (N.D.Ill.1995) (citing Campbell v. O’Leary, 190 Ill.App.3d 1108, 158 Ill.Dec. 64, 573 N.E.2d 877 (1989)). On July 30, 1990 the Circuit Court of Will County determined that plaintiffs sentence should have run to June 16, 1988, “and in any event no later than June 16, 1989,” and ordered his immediate release. Id.

Discussion

The court now considers whether plaintiffs previous habeas corpus claim in state court bars his present claim for damages pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Defendants maintain that under the doctrine of res judicata plaintiff was obligated to raise his Section 1983 [278]*278claim in his habeas corpus action because the two claims essentially form the same cause of action. They argue that although plaintiff premises his Section 1983 claim for damages on a different type of relief than the prior habeas corpus action, Illinois law requires plaintiff to assert all theories of recovery in the same action. (Defs.’ Mem. in Supp. at 27-29.) Defendants thus contend that plaintiff should have either filed a writ of mandamus or joined the two claims in the first instance. Plaintiff responds that state law prohibited him from seeking monetary damages in his initial state habeas corpus action and from joining the two claims in one suit. Therefore, the two actions were not the same for res judicata purposes.

The doctrine of res judicata provides that “a final judgment on the merits of an action precludes the parties or their privies from relitigating issues that were or could have been raised in that action.” Allen v. McCurry, 449 U.S. 90, 101 S.Ct. 411, 66 L.Ed.2d 308 (1980). A federal court must give a state court judgment the same preclusive effect that the rendering state would give such judgments. See Koen v. City of Cairo, 909 F.2d 992, 996-97 (7th Cir.1990) (citing 28 U.S.C. § 1738) (federal courts required to give state court judgments same full faith and credit as state court would). Thus, res judicata bars the subsequent federal claim if: (1) under the law of the forum state the doctrine of res judicata would bar the claim and (2) the party against whom the earlier decision is asserted had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the claim or issue. Lolling v. Patterson, 966 F.2d 230, 235 (7th Cir.1992).3 Under Illinois law, the three essential elements of res judicata are: (1) final judgment on the merits in the prior suit (2) identity of parties or their privies in the two suits and (3) identity of causes of action in the two suits. Id.; People ex rel. Burris v. Progressive Land Developers, Inc., 151 Ill.2d 285, 176 Ill.Dec. 874, 879, 602 N.E.2d 820, 825 (1992).

Though narrow on its face, the third element of res judicata is relatively broad in scope and application. In Illinois, two suits constitute the same cause of action if either of two tests is met: the “proof test” (essentially the same evidence used to sustain one action sustains the subsequent claim) or the “transactional test” (the two actions arise out of the same factual situation). Koen, 909 F.2d at 998. Moreover, “the bar of res judicata extends not only to questions actually decided but also to all grounds of recovery and defenses which might have been presented in the prior litigation between the parties.” Lolling, 966 F.2d at 235 (citations omitted). Thus, res judicata may preclude a claim arising out of the same set of facts or evidence as an earlier litigated one, even if the later claim seeks dissimilar relief. Torcasso v. Standard Outdoor Sales, 157 Ill.2d 484, 193 Ill.Dec. 192, 195, 626 N.E.2d 225, 228 (1993); see Koen, 909 F.2d at 999 (res judicata bars federal suit based on the same facts as prior mandamus action); Wozniak v. County of DuPage, 845 F.2d 677, 681 (7th Cir.1988) (change of claim for relief from mandamus to damages action does not prevent application of res judicata).

However, the third element does not extend to situations in which the initial forum did not have the power to award the full measure of relief sought in the later litigation. Burgos v. Hopkins, 14 F.3d 787, 790 (10th Cir.1994); see Garry v. Geils, 874 F.Supp. 195, 199 (N.D.Ill.1995) (res judicata bars later federal claim if plaintiff had ade quate opportunity to present it in earlier state proceeding). As explained in the Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 26(l)(c):

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Campbell v. Illinois Department of Corrections, 907 F. Supp. 276, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17710, 1995 WL 704473 (N.D. Ill. 1995).

907 F. Supp. 276 (Campbell v. Illinois Department of Corrections) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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