Conflicts Keyed to Currie
Semtek International, Inc. v. Lockheed Martin Corp.
ProfessorTodd Berman
CaseCast™ – "What you need to know"
Facts
Semek International Inc. (Plaintiff) brought suit against Lockheed Martin Corp. (Defendant) for breach of contract in California state court and Defendant removed the case to federal court. Following the court’s dismissal of the action with prejudice because the statute of limitations had run, Plaintiff filed the same complaint in Maryland, where Defendant was a citizen and the statute of limitations was longer. The Maryland trial court granted Lockheed’s (Defendant) motion to dismiss for res judicata and Plaintiff appealed, arguing that a California state court would not have given claim preclusive effect to a statute of limitations dismissal by one of its own courts. The Maryland appeals court affirmed the dismissal, holding that the res judicata effect of a federal diversity judgment was a matter of federal law and that the judgment was preclusive. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.
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