Appellate Law

CA1: translation problems translate into claim preclusion and Rooker-Feldman problems

By S. COTUS

Puerto Ricans for PR v. Dalmau-Ramirez, No. 07-2700.  I am sure that the facts really mean a lot to Puerto Ricans, but it comes down to a question of civil procedure.  The District Court dismissed the petition on the basis of a Spanish-language opinion from the Puerto Rican Supreme Court.  The First says that this is really bad, because it would make the federal court less uniform. 

The court then goes on to concludes that the  Rooker-Feldman doctrinedoctrine wasn?t applicable, because this suit was challenging a later action by the Electoral Commission (even though the complaint was very broad), and the English-language version of the Puerto Rican Supreme Court showed that the issues were, in fact, different and there is no evidence that they could have brought their claims in the state proceeding. 

Full post as published by Appellate Law and Practice on October 06, 2008 (boomark / email).