Safeco Ins. Co. of America v. Yon

WALTERS, Chief Judge.

This appeal involves the question of whether collateral estoppel forecloses consideration in a civil action of an issue previously resolved in a criminal case. We are asked to decide whether the district court properly determined that the appellants were precluded from asserting, in an action to recover damages for wrongful death, that David Yon did not intend to kill Joe Bussell, Jr., after Yon had been convicted of second degree murder for causing the death of Bussell. Appellants, Yon and Bussell’s heirs, 1 maintain that the issue of intent in a civil trial is separate…