Henry E. & Nancy Horton Bartels Trust ex rel. Cornell University v. United States

OPINION AND ORDER

BLOCK, Judge.

This tax ease presents two issues. The first is one of first impression1 in this court: the extent to which collateral estoppel applies when the party to be precluded is alleged to have been “virtually represented” in the prior case by a different party alleging the same legal or factual interests. The doctrine of “virtual representation” is an .exception to the general rule in Anglo-American jurisprudence “that one is not bound by a judgment in personam in a litigation in which he is not designated as a party or to which he has not been made a party by service…