William Johnson v. Alan Mateer, John Holmes, R. A. Dietrich, Steven Crockwell, Betty Lieu, All Individuals

William Johnson, invoking this court’s jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (1976), appeals from the district court’s grant of summary judgment to appellees, employees of the Department of Motor Vehicles for the State of California (DMV), in his suit for damages alleging civil rights violations under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1976) and related statutes. Following the state court’s refusal to suppress evidence seized from his place of business by employees of the DMV acting without a search warrant, appellant Johnson entered a plea of nolo contendere to charges of criminal violations of the California Motor Vehicle Code. The district court, finding the sole issue in this case to be the legality of the search and seizure, which had been determined adversely to the plaintiff in the state court suppression hearing, held that Johnson was barred by collateral estoppel from relitigating the claim in federal court. We reverse and remand.

We decide on two grounds. We find that Johnson has raised genuine factual issues going beyond the allegedly illegal search and seizure. More importantly, we hold that the doctrine of collateral estoppel does not bar the plaintiff from litigating in this section…