Buck Creek Industries, Inc. v. Alcon Construction, Inc.

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:

The appellants, Alcon Construction Company and Robert B. Martin Building Company, contend that the district court committed numerous errors in the proceedings below. We find, however, that our resolution of a single issue is dispositive of the case: whether the district court should have accepted appellants’ defense of res judicata. Because we find that it should have accepted this defense, we reverse.

The facts relevant to the res judicata defense are relatively straightforward. Buck Creek Industries, plaintiff below, successfully prosecuted an earlier federal diversity…