Opinion
Case No. 3:09-cv-099.
March 11, 2009
REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This case is an attempted removal to federal court of a traffic case pending against Defendant in the Dayton Municipal Court, captioned State v. Ealy, Case No. 2008 TRD 3189. In this Court's Case No. 3:08-cv-469, Mr. Ealy previously attempted to remove the same traffic case from the Dayton Municipal Court. Judge Rice entered final judgment in that case on March 3, 2009, adopting Magistrate Judge Ovington's conclusion that the removal was untimely (Doc. No. 10). Judge Rice also certified to the Court of Appeals that any appeal of that decision would be frivolous. Id.
. . . [W]hen a court of competent jurisdiction has entered a final judgment on the merits of a cause of action, the parties to the suit and their privies are bound "not only as to every matter which was offered and received to sustain or defeat the claim or demand, but as to any other admissible matter which might have been offered for that purpose." Cromwell v. County of Sac, 94 U.S. 351, 352, 24 L. Ed. 195 (1877). The judgment puts an end to the cause of action, which cannot again be brought into litigation between the parties upon any ground whatever, absent fraud or some other factor invalidating the judgment. Commissioner v. Sunnen, 333 U.S. 591, 68 S. Ct. 715, 92 L. Ed. 898 (1948), diverged from in Montana v. United States, 440 US. 147, 99 S. Ct. 970, 59 L. Ed. 2d 210 (1979).
Res judicata "extinguishes 'all rights of the plaintiff to remedies against the defendant with respect to all or any part of the transaction, or series of connected transactions, out of which the cause of action arose.'" Hamilton's Bogarts, Inc., v. Michigan, 501 F. 3d 644 (6th Cir. 2007), quoting Walker v. General Tel. Co., 25 F. App'x 332, 336 (6th Cir. 2001).
Because renewed litigation of the attempted renewal is barred by the final judgment in Case No. 3:08-cv-469 and the doctrine of res judicata, the Complaint herein should be dismissed with prejudice and the Court should certify that any appeal would be frivolous and therefore may not be taken in forma pauperis.