- 18 - (4) The parties must actually have litigated the issues and the resolution of these issues must have been essential to the prior decision. (5) The controlling facts and applicable legal rules must remain unchanged from those in the prior litigation. Arguably, petitioner has satisfied the more procedural of the five conditions in that a final judgment was rendered in Pierce I, the parties are identical in both cases, and the controlling facts and applicable legal rules have not changed. Further, the negligence issue, which petitioner asserts is the same as that being decided in the current case, was litigated and essential to the Pierce I decision. However, petitioner does not satisfy the one substantive condition that is the core requirement for application of collateral estoppel. Collateral estoppel promotes judicial economy by preventing successive litigation of identical issues. The issue in the current case is not, in all respects, identical with the issue decided in Pierce I and, therefore, does not satisfy this condition for application of collateral estoppel. The issue litigated in Pierce I was whether petitioner and Mr. Pierce were liable for negligence penalties provided for in section 6662(b)(1). Negligence, as defined in section 6662(c), includes “any failure to make a reasonable attempt to comply with the * * * [Code]”. Negligence also includes a “lack of due care orPage: Previous 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011