Martino v. McDonald’s
System, Inc.
598 F.2d 1079 (7th Cir.),
cert. denied, 444 U.S. 966 (1979)
Yeazell, pp. 811-816
Facts: Martino had a McDonald’s franchise. In getting that franchise, he signed a contract
that said no one in his family would have a stake in another fast-food
chain. Then he financed a Burger Chef
for his son in
Issue: Does the prior judgment against Martino preclude him
from the current suit?
Rule: Once a judgment has been rendered on a claim, all
possible issues related to that claim are considered settled even if they weren’t
brought up in the first suit.
Analysis: The court says that Martino is right in saying that Rule 13(a) has no
effect because Martino never filed a pleading.
However, the court says that McDonald’s is right to say that Martino’s
new claim is precluded. If Martino
wanted to bring up antitrust as a defense in the first suit, he had to “use it
or lose it” at that point and he can’t bring it up now.
Conclusion: The trial court’s judgment is affirmed.
Notes and Problems
1.
a.
No
court ever ruled on whether the antitrust argument was valid.
b.
The
claim was barred because Martino should have brought it up in the first suit.
2.
a.
If
a counterclaim is compulsory, it’s basically “use it or lose it”. If you fail to make a counterclaim at the
appropriate time, we won’t let you further tax the resources of the courts by
making that claim later.
b.
Rule 13(a) didn’t
apply because Martino never filed any pleadings. The first suit ended in a consent decree,
which means (I think) it never went to trial per se.
3.
a.
Okay.
b.
Right,
because you can’t open a counterclaim when doing so would “nullify rights
established by the prior action”.
c.
Well,
that’s the title of this subsection of the chapter, so…yep.
4.
Well,
it’s not only up to the parties. The
parties might really want to tax the resources of the courts a lot and contract
such that they go over the same issues over and over and over. But that would be highly inefficient and
would have negative effects on all the other litigants in all the other
cases. So we’re not going to let the
parties contract this way.