| Venue: | DC Ct. App. |
| Facts: | Tricky traffic light camera catches a lot of people. Kovach pays his fine. Then DC grants amnesty and removes the camera. |
| Posture: | Kovach sues on behalf of everyone who got bilked by the camera, alleging discrimination and equal protection problems. Trial court dismisses saying both res judicata and collateral estoppel. |
| Issue: | Was the trial court right? |
| Holding: | No on the res judicata element, but yes on the collateral estoppel. |
| Rule: | It can't be res judicata if there was no possibility of litigation, but by paying the ticket he waived the right to challenge it. |
| Reasoning: | The decision to grant amnesty wasn't made until after he paid his
ticket, so there's no way he could have litigated it before.
On the other hand, paying the ticket is an acknowledgement of liability. He can't come now and assert non-liability: if he wasn't liable, he had to raise it back then. |
| Dicta: | |