Bowen ex rel. Doe v. Arnold

OPINION

Cornelia A. Clark, J,,

delivered the opinion of the court,

in which Sharon G. Lee, C.J., and Jeffrey S. Bivins, Holly Kirby, and Roger A. Page, JJ., joined.

The determinative question in this appeal is whether the trial court erred in ruling that a person convicted of rape and aggravated sexual battery is collaterally estopped in a subsequent civil lawsuit filed by the victim of the criminal offenses from relitigating the issue of whether he raped and sexually battered the victim. The trial court applied collateral estoppel, explaining that, although the victim was not a party to the…