1993-10-28_GENERAL DOCUMENTS - C1981017

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1263, 1276 (1939) (citing in part, Chicago R.I. &P.R. Co. v. Schendel, 270 U.S. 611, 620, 46 S. Ct. 420, 70 L .Ed. 757, 764 (1925)). The United States Supreme Court said, id. at 310 U.S. at 402: Identity of parties is not a mere matter of form, but of substance. Parties nominally the same may be, in legal effect, different ... and parties nominally different may be, in legal effect, the same.... There is privity between officers of the same government so that a judgment in a suit between a party and a representative of the United States is res judicata in relitigation of the same issue between that party and another officer of the United States. [Citations omitted.] The crucial point is whether or not in the earlier litigation the representative of the United States had authority to represent its interests in a final adjudication of the issue in controversy. [Emphasis supplied.] The Sunshine Anthracite analysis should apply to bind WQCD by MLRD's previous proceeding. MLRD and WQCD are divisions of the same government. Further, MLRD had the capacity to represent Colorado's interests in the adjudication of the discharge violation from Outfall No. 016. The district court considered and rejected WQCD's argument that the agencies' separate enabling statutes militate against the bar of res judicata. It stated, District Court Decision 9- 10: Although the technical vocabulary of the statutes differs. as applied to a coal mining operation near sensitive streams. they are remarkably similar in policy and approach. The Colorado Water Quality Control Act, C.R.S. § 25 -8 -101. et. seq., is designed to "achieve the maximum practical degree of water quality in the waters of the state consistent with the welfare of the state," recognizing that "pollution of state waters may constitute a menace to public health and welfare," C.R.S. § 25- 8- 102(1). The Act also contains the public policy "to conserve state waters and protect ... the quality thereof ... for domestic, agricultural, industrial, and recreational uses, and for other beneficial uses, taking into consideration the requirements of such uses ... , " C.R.S. § 25- 8- 102(2). The mining act carries forth the same general policies; it aims "to protect society and the 28 See also discussion comparing MLRD's and WQCD's overlapping authority, pages 24- 32, ante. Mid - Continent Answer Brief - 33 - \ Appeal No. 93 CA 297