Arizona v. California, 530 U.S. 392, 23 (2000)

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414

ARIZONA v. CALIFORNIA

Opinion of the Court

tional water rights based on the Tribe's purported beneficial ownership of those lands.

Under standard preclusion doctrine, the Master's recommendation cannot be sustained. As already noted, the express terms of the consent judgment in Docket No. 320 barred the Tribe and the United States from asserting against each other any claim or defense they raised or could have raised in that action. See supra, at 405. As between the parties to Docket No. 320, then, the settlement indeed had, and was intended to have, claim-preclusive effect—a matter the United States and the Tribe readily concede. Exception and Brief for United States 36; Exception and Brief for Quechan Indian Tribe 20. But settlements ordinarily occasion no issue preclusion (sometimes called collateral estoppel), unless it is clear, as it is not here, that the parties intend their agreement to have such an effect. "In most circumstances, it is recognized that consent agreements ordinarily are intended to preclude any further litigation on the claim presented but are not intended to preclude further litigation on any of the issues presented. Thus consent judgments ordinarily support claim preclusion but not issue preclusion." 18 C. Wright, A. Miller, & E. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure § 4443, pp. 384-385 (1981). This differentiation is grounded in basic res judicata doctrine. It is the general rule that issue preclusion attaches only "[w]hen an issue of fact or law is actually litigated and determined by a valid and final judgment, and the determination is essential to the judgment." Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 27, p. 250 (1982). "In the case of a judgment entered by confession, consent, or default, none of the issues is actually litigated. Therefore, the rule of this Section [describing issue preclusion's domain] does not apply with respect to any issue in a subsequent action." Id., comment e, at 257.

This Court's decision in United States v. International Building Co., 345 U. S. 502 (1953), is illustrative. In 1942, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue assessed deficiencies

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