Costar v. United States

The defendant has moved to dismiss this breach of contract suit on the grounds of res judicata and collateral estoppel. It contends — and we agree — that all the material issues of fact and law raised in this suit were litigated and determined adversely to the plaintiffs in a prior and nearly identical suit for injunctive relief they filed in the United States District Court. We therefore grant the government’s motion on collateral estoppel grounds.

I

A. In 1967, the plaintiffs entered into a 25-year lease of a tract of land in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Shenango River Reservoir Project…