Shoman Kasbekar, et al. v. Ivy Station Community Association, Inc., et al.

After holding that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine jurisdictionally barred it from determining whether a state court judgment is void ab initio and subject to collateral attack, the Eleventh Circuit determined that a Georgia court acted with jurisdiction and in a manner consistent with Fourteenth Amendment Due Process when it entered judgment on a pleading expressly disallowed by Georgia’s Civil Practice Act and thereby ordered a plaintiff to pay damages on claims asserted against a third-party and the third-party to pay damages on claims asserted against the plaintiff. Refusing to apply Georgia law to determine the validity of a Georgia court judgment, the Eleventh Circuit reasoned that two pleadings, one asserting claims against the plaintiff and the other asserting claims against the third-party, were “substantively identical” and, as such, the plaintiff and the third-party each had notice to defend claims asserted solely against the other. The questions presented are: 1. Whether a state court acts with jurisdiction and in a manner consistent with Fourteenth Amendment Due Process when it enters judgment on a pleading expressly disallowed by the state’s rules of civil procedure and orders a person to pay damages on claims not asserted against that person but against another person.