Richards v. Jefferson County, 517 U.S. 793, 9 (1996)

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Cite as: 517 U. S. 793 (1996)

Opinion of the Court

sented by parties who are present, or . . . the relationship between the parties present and those who are absent is such as legally to entitle the former to stand in judgment for the latter." Hansberry, 311 U. S., at 42-43. We concluded, however, that because the interests of those class members who had been a party to the prior litigation were in conflict with the absent members who were the defendants in the subsequent action, the doctrine of representation of absent parties in a class suit could not support the decree.

Even assuming that our opinion in Hansberry may be read to leave open the possibility that in some class suits adequate representation might cure a lack of notice, but cf., id., at 40; Eisen v. Carlisle & Jacquelin, 417 U. S. 156, 177 (1974); Mul-lane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co., 339 U. S., at 319, it may not be read to permit the application of res judicata here. Our opinion explained that a prior proceeding, to have binding effect on absent parties, would at least have to be "so devised and applied as to insure that those present are of the same class as those absent and that the litigation is so conducted as to insure the full and fair consideration of the common issue." 311 U. S., at 43; cf. Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Shutts, 472 U. S., at 811-812. It is plain that the Bedingfield action, like the prior proceeding in Hansberry itself, does not fit such a description.

The Alabama Supreme Court concluded that the "taxpayers in the Bedingfield action adequately represented the interests of the taxpayers here," 662 So. 2d, at 1130 (emphasis added), but the three county taxpayers who were parties in Bedingfield did not sue on behalf of a class; their pleadings did not purport to assert any claim against or on behalf of any nonparties; and the judgment they received did not purport to bind any county taxpayers who were nonparties. That the acting director of finance for the city of Birmingham also sued in his capacity as both an individual taxpayer and a public official does not change the analysis. Even if we were to assume, as the Alabama Supreme Court did not, that

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