Illinois Central Gulf Railroad v. Parks
Court of Appeals of Indiana
390 N.E.2d 1078 (1979)
Bertha and Jessie Parks (plaintiffs) sued the railroad and its engineer (defendants) after their car collided with a train; a jury found the railroad, but not the engineer, negligent, awarded Bertha damages for her injuries, but denied Jessie's loss-of-consortium claim entirely, with the railroad having argued Jessie was contributorily negligent. When Jessie later sued the same defendants for his own personal injuries from the same accident, the railroad again raised contributory negligence, both parties moved for summary judgment, and the trial court denied the railroad's motion, holding the prior verdict had not necessarily decided Jessie's contributory negligence.
Whether a party seeking to apply issue preclusion to a fact that could have supported either of two different bases for a prior judgment must show that the prior judgment could not have been rendered without deciding that particular fact.