RES JUDICATA---STATE COURT\u27S DISMISSAL AS A BAR TO A NEW SUIT ON THE SAME CAUSE IN A FEDERAL COURT EXERCISING DIVERSITY JURISDICTION

A citizen of Virginia brought suit in a North Carolina court against a citizen of North Carolina for a deficiency judgment on a note executed in Virginia ·for the purchase of land in Virginia. Defendant\u27s demurrer to the complaint on the ground that a North Carolina statute precluded recovery was - overruled; defendant appealed. In spite of plaintiff\u27s contention that the statute was an invalid abridgment of the full faith and credit clause of Article IV of the Constitution of the United States, the North Carolina Supreme Court held that the statute effectively barred the action from the state courts and dismissed the case. Plaintiff then brought suit in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina on the same cause of action invoking diversity jurisdiction; defendant pleaded the state judgment in bar. The district court gave judgment for plaintiff on the ground that the state could not limit federal jurisdiction by procedural legislation; the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed. On certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States, held, reversed. The North Carolina Supreme Court\u27s adjudication barred the action in the federal court; plaintiff could contest the correctness of the decision only by appeal from the state court. Angel v. Bullington, (U.S. 1947) 67 S. Ct. 657