Hameed v. Aldana
Hameed v. Aldana
Opinion of the Court
SUMMARY ORDER
Plaintiff-appellant Imran Hameed appeals pro se from a January 4, 2007, 2007 WL 28424, judgment of the District Court, granting defendants’ motion to dismiss Ha-meed’s claims on res judicata grounds. Hameed filed the underlying complaint, pro se, in 2006 against Lorri Aldana, Edward Aldana, 41-50 78th Street Corporation, Plum Holding Corporation, and 200 John Does, alleging claims for (1) breach of contract, (2) breach of fiduciary duty, (3) negligence, and (4) fraud. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the facts and procedural history, though we revisit key portions of that history here.
Hameed’s complaint stemmed from a termination of his interest in certain shares of a cooperative apartment building at 41-50 78th Street, Elmhurst, New York (the “Coop”). Hameed alleges that he and several partners bought the shares in October 1984. The property went into receivership in 1992 and in 1998, the 41-50 78th Street Corporation terminated the interests of all other entities with title to the shares of the property. Hameed sued the defendant cooperative corporation, among others, three times in the Supreme Court
The doctrine of res judicata “bars later litigation if [an] earlier decision was (1) a final judgment on the merits, (2) by a court of competent jurisdiction, (3) in a case involving the same parties or their privies, and (4) involving the same cause of action.” EDP Med. Computer Sys. v. United States, 480 F.3d 621, 624 (2d Cir. 2007) (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). We review de novo a district court’s application of res judicata. See Legnani v. Alitalia Linee Aeree Italiane, S.p.A., 400 F.3d 139, 141 (2d Cir. 2005) (per curiam).
In applying the doctrine of res judicata, we bear in mind that “a state court judgment has the same preclusive effect in federal court as the judgment would have had in state court.” Burka v. New York City Transit Authority, 32 F.3d 654, 657 (2d Cir. 1994). Therefore, we must determine what preclusive effect a New York state court would give Hameed’s previous actions. In the instant case, this exercise need not be one of conjecture; as the District Court noted, Hameed’s complaint in federal court is identical to his third complaint in the New York State Supreme Court
Even in the absence of the final New York State Supreme Court decision, however, it is clear that Hameed’s claims are barred by res judicata. We note that New York employs a “transactional approach” to res judicata issues, which means that “once a claim is brought to a final conclusion, all other claims arising out of the same transaction or series of transactions are barred, even if based upon different theories or if seeking a different remedy.” O’Brien v. City of Syracuse, 54 N.Y.2d 353, 357, 445 N.Y.S.2d 687, 688, 429 N.E.2d 1158, 1159 (1981). The claims Ha-meed now seeks to pursue in federal court clearly arose from the same transaction as those previously raised in the state court actions, which were brought to final eon
CONCLUSION
We reject all of plaintiff-appellant’s claims on appeal. Accordingly, the judgment of the District Court is AFFIRMED.
. We acknowledge that the caption of the complaint Mr. Hameed filed in New York State Supreme Court is different from the caption of the complaint that he filed in federal court.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Imran HAMEED v. Lorri ALDANA, Edward Aldana, 41-50 78th Street Corp., John Doe 1 Through 200
- Cited By
- 5 cases
- Status
- Published