O'Brien v. City of Syracuse
Court of Appeals of New York
429 N.E.2d 1158 (1981)
O'Brien and other plaintiffs first sued the City of Syracuse and other defendants alleging an unlawful taking of their property without just compensation, and after a nonjury trial the court dismissed for failure to establish a de facto taking, a ruling affirmed on appeal. The plaintiffs later filed a second suit alleging essentially the same underlying facts but framed as a tax-deed taking and trespass/property-damage claim; the trial court, relying on prior New York precedent, held res judicata did not bar the second suit because it involved substantially different elements of proof, but an intermediate appellate court reversed, and the plaintiffs appealed further.
Whether a plaintiff who has litigated a claim to final judgment may bring a subsequent lawsuit against the same defendant asserting a different legal theory and different elements of proof, where the new claim arises from the same underlying facts as the earlier litigation.