Is a federal court bound to grant full faith and credit to a state court judgment?
The following excerpt is from Davenport v. Campoy, 951 F.2d 359 (9th Cir. 1991):
"When a state court judgment is the source of the supposed res judicata (claim preclusion), 28 U.S.C. 1738 provides that a federal court must give the state court judgment the same full faith and credit as it would be entitled to in the courts of the state in which it was entered." Clark v. Yosemite Community College Dist., 785 F.2d 781, 784 (9th Cir.1986). Under California law, the issue of res judicata is approached by focusing on the "primary right" at stake.
[I]f two actions involve the same injury to the plaintiff and the same wrong by the defendant then the same primary right is at stake even if in the second suit the plaintiff pleads different theories of recovery, seeks different forms of relief and/or adds new facts supporting recovery.
Id. (citing Eichman v. Fotomat Corp. 147 Cal.App.3d 1170, 1174-75, 197 Cal.Rptr. 612, 614 (1983).
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