By: Derek Hawkins//June 10, 2020//
United States Supreme Court
Case Name: Lucky Brand Dungarees, Inc., et al., v. Marcel Fashions Group, Inc.
Case No.: 18-1086
Focus: Defense Preclusion
This case arises from protracted litigation between petitioners Lucky Brand Dungarees, Inc., and others (collectively Lucky Brand) and respondent Marcel Fashions Group, Inc. (Marcel). In the latest lawsuit between the two, Lucky Brand asserted a defense against Marcel that it had not pressed fully in a preceding suit between the parties. This Court is asked to determine whether Lucky Brand’s failure to litigate the defense in the earlier suit barred Lucky Brand from invoking it in the later suit. Because the parties agree that, at a minimum, the preclusion of such a defense in this context requires that the two suits share the same claim to relief—and because we find that the two suits here did not—Lucky Brand was not barred from raising its defense in the later action.
Reversed and remanded
Dissenting:
Concurring: