Plaintiff appeals a summary judgment order of the district court holdmg that plam-tiff s claims against the City of Albuquerque under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 are barred by res judicata. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. For the reasons set forth herein, we affirm.
Plaintiff began employment with the City of Albuquerque as a Sun Trans Bus Operator on August 27, 1990, and became a full-time, permanent employee. On March 18, 1992, the City admimstered a drug test on which plaintiff tested positive for cannabinoids or marijuana. On March 30, 1992, the City advised plaintiff in writing of a disciplinary predetermination hearing that would be held on April 14, 1992. The notification stated that the disciplinary action under consideration was termination. Plaintiff, who was represented by an attorney, attended the *1410 hearing. Plaintiff argued that the City did not adhere to its own procedures for mandatory drug testing and that the drug test yielded false positive results because he never used marijuana. Because of the positive drug test, the City decided to terminate plaintiff as of April 17,1992.
After a post-termination hearing held August 31,1992, the Pеrsonnel Hearing Officer, T. Zane Reeves, issued findings of fact and concluded that the City had just cause to terminate plaintiff’s employment. On October 15, 1992, the City Personnel Board voted 3-0 to uphold the Hearing Officer’s recommendation to sustain plaintiff’s termination. Plaintiffs challenge of his termination and the hearing and appeal afforded to him were made pursuant to the City of Albuquerque’s Merit System Ordinance, which provides that city employees may only be terminated for specified reasons and provides them with certain procedural rights, including an adversary hearing before a hearing officer and review of the hearing officer’s determination by thе Personnel Board.
See e.g., Saavedra v. City of Albuquerque,
On November 17, 1992, plaintiff filed a “Petition for Writ of Certiorari” in the Second Judicial District Court of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, seeking review of the Personnel Board’s decision. The City was one of the named defendants in the action. The parties filed briefs on the matter and on October 19, 1995, presented oral arguments to District Court Judge Gerard W. Thomson. Based upon a review of the record, Judge Thomson entered a judgment on November 27, 1995, in which he concluded that the Personnel Board’s decision was not arbitrary or capricious, contrary to law, or unsupported by substantial evidence. On December 20, 1995, plaintiff appealed Judge Thomson’s ruling to the New Mexico Court of Appeals, which subsequently affirmed the judgment. Aplt. Br., Exh. 2.
On August 31,1993, after plaintiff had filed the state court action but before that court had entered its judgment, plaintiff filed the instant action in the United States District Court for the District of New Mеxico. The federal complaint, based upon 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleged that the defendants violated plaintiffs Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches by administering a drug test without reasonable suspicion, and his Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process of law by failing to provide adequate procedures in connection with his termination. The complaint also asserted several state law causes of action. The City was again one of the named defendants. 1 On August 17,1994, the district court entered an order staying the federal case pending resolution of the state court proceeding. 2 After judgment was entered in the Bernalillo County aсtion, the City moved for summary judgment in the federal case, arguing that plaintiffs claims were now barred by res judicata. The federal district court agreed, finding that the claims were barred because they could have been asserted in the Bernal-illo County action. The district court declined to exercise supplemental jurisdictiоn over plaintiffs state law claims and dismissed them without prejudice. Plaintiff now ap *1411 peals the summary judgment order, arguing that the district court erred in its application of res judicata.
Discussion.
The starting point for addressing the preclusive effect of the state court judgment is the federal “foil faith and credit” statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1738, which provides in part:
Such Acts, records and judicial proceedings or copies thereof, so authenticated, shall have the same full faith and credit in every court within the United States ... as they have by law or usage in the court of such State ... from which they are taken.
Section 1738 requires federal courts to give the same preclusive effeсt to state court judgments that those judgments would be given in the state courts from which they emerged.
Kremer v. Chemical Construction Corp.,
Res judicata, or “claim preclusion,” bars litigation of claims that were or could hаve been advanced in an earlier proceeding.
State Ex Rel. Martinez v. Kerr-McGee Corp.,
The New Mexico Supreme Court has adopted the rules set forth in
Restatement (Second) of Judgments
Sections 24 and 25 for defining the scope of a “claim” or “cause of action” that is barred by a prior judgment. See
Three Rivers Land Co. v. Maddoux,
(1) When a valid and final judgment rendered in an action extinguishes the plaintiffs claim pursuant to the rules of merger or bar (see §§ 18, 19)[ 3 ], the claim extinguished includes all rights of the plaintiff to remedies against the defendant with respect to all or any part of the transaction, or series of connected transactions, out of which the action arose.
(2) What factual grouping constitutes a “transaction”, and what groupings constitute a “series”, are to be determined pragmatically, giving weight to such considerations as whether the facts are related in time, space, origin, or motivation, whether they form a convenient trial unit, and whether their treatment as a unit conforms to the parties’ expectations or business understanding or usage.
In adopting this transactional view of “claim,” the Restatement reflects the fact that under modern forms of procedure the parties have the means to present all material relevant to the transaction without confinement to a single substantive theory or form of relief. As such, “[tjhe law of res judicata now reflects the expectation that parties who are given the capacity to present their ‘entire controversies’ shall in fact do so.” Restatement(Second) of Judgments § 24, Comment a.
The Restatement rules lead us to conclude that plaintiffs allegations under § 1983 are part of the same claim he asserted in Bernalillo County District Court. In “Strickland I” plaintiff challenged his termination under the City’s Merit System Ordinance. He argued that the drug test and the procedures used by the City to terminate him
*1412
were faulty. In terms of time, space, and origin, these allegations are аlmost identical to those underlying plaintiff’s § 1983 claims. There is a substantial, if not complete, overlap in terms of the witnesses and proof relevant to both actions.
See Ford v. New Mexico Dept. of Pub. Safety,
In resisting the application of res judicata, plaintiff argues that his federal claims should not be precluded because he could not have asserted them in the City administrative hearings. He contends that the Personnel Board’s jurisdiction is limited to determining whether there was “just cause” for his termination under the Merit System Ordinance. Assuming this to be true, it nevertheless misses the point. No contention is made that the federal claims are barred because plaintiff did not raise them before the Personnel Board. The issue is whether they are barred because they could have been asserted in the Bernalillo Cоunty District Court action that resulted in a judgment in favor of the City. As a practical matter, the § 1983 claims are clearly part of the same transaction as the Merit System claim. The fact that they are based on federal rather than state law does not affect the application of claim preclusion. The Restatement(Second) of Judgments § 25, Comment e provides:
A given сlaim may find support in theories or grounds arising from both state and federal law. When the plaintiff brings an action on the claim in a court, either state or federal, in which there is no jurisdictional obstacle to his advancing both theories or grounds, but he presents only one of them, and judgment is entered with respect to it, he may not maintain a second action in which he tenders the other theory or ground. If however, the court in the first action would clearly not have had jurisdiction to entertain the omitted theory or ground (or, having jurisdiction, would clearly have declined to exercise it as a matter of discretion), then a second action in a competent court presenting the omitted theory or ground should be held not precluded.
Plaintiff has shown no barrier to the joinder of his § 1983 claims in the state court action.
4
The state court would have had subject matter jurisdiction over the § 1983 claims.
See e.g., Martinez v. California,
Plaintiff also argues that the application of res judicata would be inconsistent with § 1983’s remedial objectives and that he has a right to bring his federal claims in a federal forum. These contentions are answered by
Migra v. Warren City School Dist. Bd. of Ed.,
Once the plaintiff chose to seek judicial relief in state court, the interest of the City and оf society in bringing litigation to a close weighed heavily in favor of requiring him to assert all available claims relating to his termination in a single action. Plaintiff has not shown that any of the exceptions to res judi-cata apply such that this interest was overcome. See Restatement(Second) of Judgments § 26 (listing exceptions to the general rule against claim splitting). In sum, we find that the district court did not err in finding that plaintiffs claims under § 1983 are barred by res judicata.
Aside from res judicata, plaintiff also contends that the district court erred by staying the federal action to await the outcome of the state suit. Whatever the merits of such a claim might be under other circumstances, the record here disclosеs that the City’s request for a stay was granted as uncontested because plaintiff failed to file a timely response opposing it. Aplt.App. at 140. As such, we cannot find that the district court’s stay order was erroneous.
*1414 Conclusion.
The-judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.
Notes
. The City Personnel Board, Linda Logan-Con-don, T. Zane Reeves and Arthur Blumenfeld were also named as defendants. The distriсt court dismissed these defendants from the action on summary judgment and that ruling has not been challenged on appeal.
. The City’s motion to stay the federal action argued that if the state court action were resolved first, the judgment in that case would bar the federal action by virtue of res judicata. Aplt. App. Doc. 5. Despite this, plaintiff made no effort to include the § 1983 claims in the state court action.
. Section 19 provides: "A valid and personal judgment rendered in favor of the defendant bars another action by the plaintiff on the same claim.”
. Plaintiff complains that he would have had "only an unreasonably limited ability to raise his federal constitutional claims” in state court because that court's review of a decision by the Personnel Board is deferential and is limited to a review of the record. Cf. Restatement(Second) of Judgments § 26(l)(c) (recognizing exception to res judicata where court’s authority in first action is limited). These limitations, however, apply only insofar as review of the Board’s ruling undеr the Merit System Ordinance is concerned; they would not apply to § 1983 claims asserted in state court for violation of constitutional rights.
. Although the state district court acceded to counsel’s request to disregard the constitutional arguments, no showing has been made the court expressly reserved plaintiff’s right to maintain the federal action. Cf. Restatement(Second) of Judgments § 26(l)(b) (recognizing exception to res judicata where the first court expressly reserves the plaintiff’s right to maintain the second action).
. We do not read
Zamora v. Village of Ruidoso Downs,