Transport Truck & Trailer, Inc. v. Freightliner, LLC

MEMORANDUM

We affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment for defendant Freight-liner, LLC, on Transport Truck & Trailer, Inc.’s claims, and for defendant Transport Truck on Freightliner’s counterclaims, and its decision not to award attorneys’ fees to either side.

1. Preclusive effect of state administrative agency findings.

The district court applied issue preclusion to bar relitigation of factual findings made by the state agency during the ad ministrative proceeding. We review de novo the district court’s determination that collateral estoppel is available. Miller v. County of Santa Cruz, 39 F.3d 1030, 1032 (9th Cir.1994) (citations omitted). Where “collateral estoppel is available, we review for abuse of discretion the district court’s decision to give preclusive effect to the agency decision.” Id. (citation omitted).

We affirm the district court’s determination that Transport Truck was precluded from relitigating the issues that were finally determined by the Idaho Department of Transportation in its administrative hearing on the franchise termination. The record reflects that Transport Truck had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issues before the…