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Plunkett v. State3/10/2005
l of the claims raised in the state action were barred under the doctrine of res judicata. Id. at 275. This Court affirmed, reasoning that the alleged pattern of conduct intended to keep the plaintiff out of his chosen field was the driving force behind all of his claims, federal and state, including the emotional distress and defamation claims. Id. at 278, 280.
Here, it is clear that respondent's two lawsuits arose out of the same transaction or series of transactions, to wit, his termination from employment with the Supreme Court. Our analysis is not affected by the fact that the original lawsuit did not address the Chief Justice's rationale for dismissing Plunkett. See ElGabri, 681 A.2d at 276 (" pplication of the Restatement approach has been said to extinguish a plaintiff's claim against a defendant even though the plaintiff would be prepared in a second action to present evidence or grounds or theories of the case not presented * * * in the first action, or to seek remedies or forms of relief not demanded in that action."). Just as the allegedlydefamatory remarks in ElGabri made up the factual grouping from which all the claims arose, here, the Chief Justice's letter to Plunkett and respondent's subsequent termination form the core of the relevant factual grouping of both lawsuits. Therespondent's opportunity to delve into the Chief Justice's reasons for discharging himcame and went when his original suit was decided. As the state argued to this Court, res judicata is bigger than the litigants or, indeed, the issues Plunkett attempts to litigate.
Having determined that the general rules of res judicata are satisfied, we turn to the question of whether respondent somehow is entitled to an exemption from the operation of the doctrine. The respondent contends that the different policies behind the statutory right asserted in his first lawsuit and his FEPA claim in the second lawsuit warrant an exemption from the bar of res judicata. In addition, respondent asserts that his discrimination claim should not be barred because procedural barriers prevented him from including it in the original lawsuit. We are not convinced that the circumstances surrounding respondent's FEPA claim warrant an exception.
The Restatement recognizes an exception for situations when " he judgment in the first action was plainly inconsistent with the fair and equitable implementation of a statutory or constitutional scheme, or it is the sense of the scheme that the plaintiff should be permitted to split his claim." Restatement (Second) Judgments § 26(1)(d). The respondent cites Folan v. State, 723 A.2d 287 (R.I. 1999), arguing that his two claims advance separate public policies. In Folan, we held that entry of a final judgment in a workers' compensation case did not bar the plaintiff's FEPA claim, under the exclusivity clause of the Rhode Island Workers' Compensation Act (WCA). Id. at 291. We did not decide whether the plaintiff's FEPA claim would be barred under res judicata.
Nevertheless, Folan is instructive in so far as it entertains the same type of analysis called for under § 26(1)(d) of the Restatement.
In Folan, the plaintiff's first complaint asserted a claim in the Workers' Compensation Court for relief under the WCA, and therefore, the available remedies were limited to that which would compensate the employee for her work-related injury. Folan, 723 A.2d at 289-91. The Workers' Compensation Court is a court of limited jurisdiction that is strictly statutory. G.L. 1956 § 28-30-1. We held that the Legislature did not intend the WCA exclusivity provision to bar subsequent FEPA claims because the WCA "does not identify, fully remedy or adequately deter an employer's discrim
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