Can a judgment in a civil action be used as collateral estoppel in a criminal proceeding?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from Patterson v. Municipal Court, Santa Clara County, San Jose-Milpitas-Alviso Judicial Dist., 232 Cal.App.2d 289, 42 Cal.Rptr. 769 (Cal. App. 1965):

We have found no case and have been cited to none which holds that a judgment in a civil action may be applied as collateral estoppel in a criminal case. In Yates v. United States (1956) 354 U.S. 298, 77 S.Ct. 1064, 1 L.Ed.2d 1356 the court made a statement by way of dicta from which respondent claims comfort. There the petitioner asserted that the determinations against the government of the court in a prior civil case (a denaturalization proceeding) were conclusive in the criminal proceeding against him for violation of the Smith Act under the doctrine of res judicata. The court held that the determinations in the civil court could not operate as a bar because the issues were not the same.

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