Justice SCALIA delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case presents the question whether the claim-preclusive
effect of a federal
judgment dismissing a diversity action on statute-of-limitations
grounds is
determined by the law of the State in which the federal court
sits.
I
Petitioner filed a complaint against respondent in California
state court, alleging
inducement of breach of contract and various business torts.
Respondent removed
the case to the United States District Court for the Central
District of California on
the basis of diversity of citizenship, see 28 U.S.C. §§
1332, 1441 (1994 ed. and
Supp. IV), and successfully moved to dismiss petitioner's claims
as barred by
California's 2-year statute of limitations. In its order of dismissal,
the District Court,
adopting language suggested by respondent, dismissed petitioner's
claims "in [their]
entirety on the merits and with prejudice." App. to Pet. for
Cert. 59a. Without
contesting the District Court's designation of its dismissal
as "on the merits,"
petitioner appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit,
which affirmed
the District Court's order. 168 F.3d 501 (1999) (table). Petitioner
also brought
suit against respondent in the State Circuit Court for Baltimore
City, Maryland,
alleging the same causes of action, which were not time barred
under Maryland's
3-year statute of limitations. Respondent sought injunctive relief
against
this action from the California federal court under the All Writs
Act, 28 U.S.C. §
1651, and removed the action to the United States District Court
for the
District of Maryland on federal-question grounds (diversity grounds
were not
available because Lockheed "is a Maryland citizen," Semtek Int'l,
Inc. v.
Lockheed Martin Corp., 988 F.Supp. 913, 914 (1997)). The California
federal
court denied the relief requested, and the Maryland federal court
remanded the
case to state court because the federal question arose only by
way of defense,
ibid. Following a hearing, the Maryland state court granted respondent's
motion to
dismiss on the ground of res judicata. Petitioner then returned
to the California
federal court and the Ninth Circuit, unsuccessfully moving both
courts to amend
the former's earlier order so as to indicate that the dismissal
was not "on the
merits." Petitioner also appealed the Maryland trial court's
order of dismissal to the
Maryland Court of Special Appeals. The Court of Special Appeals
affirmed,
holding that, regardless of whether California would have accorded
claim-preclusive effect to a statute-of-limitations dismissal
by one of its own courts,
the dismissal by the California federal court barred the complaint
filed in Maryland,
since the res judicata effect of federal diversity judgments
is prescribed by federal
law, under which the earlier dismissal was on the merits and
claim preclusive. 128
Md.App. 39, 736 A.2d 1104 (1999). After the Maryland Court of
Appeals
declined to review the case, we granted certiorari. 530 U.S.
1260, 120 S.Ct.
2715, 147 L.Ed.2d 981 (2000).
II
Petitioner contends that the outcome of this case is controlled
by Dupasseur v.
Rochereau, 21 Wall. 130, 135, 22 L.Ed. 588 (1875)...
[Discussion omitted - Petitioner's argument is rejected.]
Respondent, for its part, contends that the outcome of this case
is controlled by
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b), which provides as follows:
"Involuntary Dismissal: Effect Thereof. For failure of the plaintiff
to prosecute or to
comply with these rules or any order of court, a defendant may
move for dismissal
of an action or of any claim against the defendant. Unless the
court in its order for
dismissal otherwise specifies, a dismissal under this subdivision
and any dismissal
not provided for in this rule, other than a dismissal for lack
of jurisdiction, for
improper venue, or for failure to join a party under Rule 19,
operates as an
adjudication upon the merits."
We think, then, that the effect of the "adjudication upon the merits"
default
provision of Rule 41(b)--and, presumably, of the explicit order
in the present case
that used the language of that default provision--is simply that,
unlike a dismissal
"without prejudice," the dismissal in the present case barred
refiling of the same
claim in the United States District Court for the Central District
of California. That
is undoubtedly a necessary condition, but it is not a sufficient
one, for
claim-preclusive effect in other courts.2
III
Having concluded that the claim-preclusive effect, in Maryland,
of this California
federal diversity judgment is dictated neither by Dupasseur v.
Rochereau, as
petitioner contends, nor by Rule 41(b), as respondent contends,
we turn to
consideration of what determines the issue. Neither the Full
Faith and Credit
Clause, U.S. Const., Art. IV, § 1,3 nor
the full faith and credit statute, 28
U.S.C. § 1738,4 addresses the question.
By their terms they govern
the effects to be given only to state-court judgments (and, in
the case of the statute,
to judgments by courts of territories and possessions). And no
other federal textual
provision, neither of the Constitution nor of any statute, addresses
the
claim-preclusive effect of a judgment in a federal diversity
action.
It is also true, however, that no federal textual provision addresses
the claim-preclusive effect of a federal-court judgment in a
federal- question case,
yet we have long held that States cannot give those judgments
merely whatever
effect they would give their own judgments, but must accord them
the effect that
this Court prescribes. See Stoll v. Gottlieb, 305 U.S. 165, 171-172,
59 S.Ct.
134, 83 L.Ed. 104 (1938); Gunter v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co.,
200 U.S.
273, 290-291, 26 S.Ct. 252, 50 L.Ed. 477 (1906); Deposit Bank
v.
Frankfort, 191 U.S. 499, 514-515, 24 S.Ct. 154, 48 L.Ed. 276
(1903). The
reasoning of that line of cases suggests, moreover, that even
when States are
allowed to give federal judgments (notably, judgments in diversity
cases) no more
than the effect accorded to state judgments, that disposition
is by direction of this
Court, which has the last word on the claim-preclusive effect
of all federal
judgments:
"It is true that for some purposes and within certain limits it
is only required that the
judgments of the courts of the United States shall be given the
same force and
effect as are given the judgments of the courts of the States
wherein they are
rendered; but it is equally true that whether a Federal judgment
has been given due
force and effect in the state court is a Federal question reviewable
by this court,
which will determine for itself whether such judgment has been
given due weight or
otherwise. ...
"When is the state court obliged to give to Federal judgments
only the force and
effect it gives to state court judgments within its own jurisdiction?
Such cases are
distinctly pointed out in the opinion of Mr. Justice Bradley
in Dupasseur v.
Rochereau [which stated that the case was a diversity case, applying
state law
under state procedure]." Ibid.
In other words, in Dupasseur the State was allowed (indeed, required)
to give a
federal diversity judgment no more effect than it would accord
one of its own
judgments only because reference to state law was the federal
rule that this
Court deemed appropriate. In short, federal common law governs
the claim-
preclusive effect of a dismissal by a federal court sitting in
diversity. See generally
R. Fallon, D. Meltzer, & D. Shapiro, Hart and Wechsler's
The Federal Courts and
the Federal System 1473 (4th ed.1996); Degnan, Federalized Res
Judicata, 85
Yale L.J. 741 (1976).
It is left to us, then, to determine the appropriate federal rule.
And despite
the sea change that has occurred in the background law since
Dupasseur was
decided--not only repeal of the Conformity Act but also the watershed
decision of
this Court in Erie--we think the result decreed by Dupasseur
continues to be
correct for diversity cases. Since state, rather than federal,
substantive law is at
issue there is no need for a uniform federal rule. And indeed,
nationwide uniformity
in the substance of the matter is better served by having the
same claim-preclusive
rule (the state rule) apply whether the dismissal has been ordered
by a state or a
federal court. This is, it seems to us, a classic case for adopting,
as the federally
prescribed rule of decision, the law that would be applied by
state courts in the
State in which the federal diversity court sits. See Gasperini
v. Center for
Humanities, Inc., 518 U.S. 415, 429-431, 116 S.Ct. 2211, 135
L.Ed.2d 659
(1996); Walker v. Armco Steel Corp., 446 U.S., at 752-753, 100
S.Ct. 1978;
Bernhardt v. Polygraphic Co. of America, 350 U.S. 198, 202-205,
76 S.Ct.
273, 100 L.Ed. 199 (1956); Palmer v. Hoffman, 318 U.S. 109, 117,
63 S.Ct.
477, 87 L.Ed. 645 (1943); Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Elec. Mfg. Co.,
313 U.S.
487, 496, 61 S.Ct. 1020, 85 L.Ed. 1477 (1941); Cities Service
Oil Co. v.
Dunlap, 308 U.S. 208, 212, 60 S.Ct. 201, 84 L.Ed. 196 (1939).
As we have
alluded to above, any other rule would produce the sort of "forum-shopping
... and
... inequitable administration of the laws" that Erie seeks to
avoid, Hanna,
380 U.S., at 468, 85 S.Ct. 1136, since filing in, or removing
to, federal court
would be encouraged by the divergent effects that the litigants
would anticipate
from likely grounds of dismissal. See Guaranty Trust Co. v. York,
326 U.S., at
109-110, 65 S.Ct. 1464.
This federal reference to state law will not obtain, of course,
in situations in which
the state law is incompatible with federal interests. If, for
example, state law did
not accord claim-preclusive effect to dismissals for willful
violation of
discovery orders, federal courts' interest in the integrity of
their own processes
might justify a contrary federal rule. No such conflict with
potential federal interests
exists in the present case. Dismissal of this state cause of
action was decreed by
the California federal court only because the California statute
of limitations so
required; and there is no conceivable federal interest in giving
that time bar more
effect in other courts than the California courts themselves
would impose.
...
Because the claim-preclusive effect of the California federal
court's
dismissal "upon the merits" of petitioner's action on statute-of-
limitations grounds
is governed by a federal rule that in turn incorporates California's
law of claim
preclusion (the content of which we do not pass upon today),
the Maryland Court
of Special Appeals erred in holding that the dismissal necessarily
precluded the
bringing of this action in the Maryland courts. The judgment
is reversed, and the
case remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this
opinion.
It is so ordered.
2. We do not decide whether, in a diversity case, a
federal court's
"dismissal upon the merits" (in the
sense we have described), under
circumstances where a state court would
decree only a "dismissal
without prejudice," abridges a "substantive
right" and thus exceeds
the authorization of the Rules Enabling
Act. We think the situation will
present itself more rarely than would
the arguable violation of the Act
that would ensue from interpreting Rule
41(b) as a rule of claim
preclusion; and if it is a violation,
can be more easily dealt with on
direct appeal.
3. Article IV, § 1, provides as follows:
"Full Faith and Credit shall be given
in each State to the public Acts,
Records, and judicial Proceedings of
every other State. And the
Congress may by general Laws prescribe
the Manner in which such
Acts, Records and Proceedings shall
be proved, and the Effect
thereof."
4. Title 28 U.S.C. § 1738 provides in relevant
part as follows:
"The records and judicial proceedings
of any court of any ... State,
Territory or Possession ... shall have
the same full faith and credit in
every court within the United States
and its Territories and
Possessions as they have by law or usage
in the courts of such State,
Territory or Possession from which they
are taken."