Rademacher
Rademacher v. United States
Opinion
Lead Opinion
MEMORANDUM *
The Appellants, Leo F. and Shirley F. Rademacher (“The Rademachers”), appeal the district court’s grant of the government’s motion for dismissal. We affirm.
The district court, adopting the findings and recommendations of the magistrate judge in their entirety, found that res judicata barred the Rademachers’ claim for judicial review of the agency’s determination. Res judicata applies when three conditions are satisfied: (1) an identity of claims, (2) a final judgment on the merits, and (3) identity of or privity between the parties. Owens v. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., 244 F.3d 708, 713 (9th Cir.2001). The parties do not dispute that the last prong, identity of the parties, is met.
The central criterion for determining whether the claims are identical is whether the two suits arise from “the same transactional nucleus of facts.” Id. at 714 (internal quotation and citation omitted). We find that the essence of both cases was a disagreement over the capitalization value of a parcel of land. The Rademachers held a lease option agreement with the Farmers Home Administration (FHA) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, pursuant to the Agricultural Credit Act…