S.O.V. V. People

We granted certiorari to review the court of appeals' decision in People in Interest of M.C., 895 P.2d 1098 (Colo. App. 1994), a case brought by the Department of Social Services (State) on behalf of M.C., a minor child, to determine whether S.O.V. is M.C.'s father and to obtain payment of child support. The issue before us is whether a jury verdict of non-paternity in that case is binding on M.C. by operation of the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel so as to prohibit M.C., who was not made a party to the case before the jury verdict was returned, from later intervening and seeking a determination that S.O.V. is her father. The trial court denied M.C.'s petition to intervene and granted S.O.V.'s motion to dismiss the case, relying on the Conclusion that M.C. is bound by the jury verdict of non-paternity under the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel. The court of appeals reversed on the basis that res judicata and collateral estoppel do not apply because M.C. was neither a party nor in privity with the State in the proceedings that eventuated in the jury verdict. Id. at 1102. We conclude that the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel are not applicable because no final judgment had been entered on the jury verdict when M.C. sought to intervene, and M.C.'s motion to intervene was filed in the same case in which the jury verdict was delivered. We also hold that M.C. was not a party or in privity with the State in the proceedings that led to the jury verdict of non-paternity. For these two independently sufficient reasons, we affirm the judgment of the court of appeals, which reverses the trial court's order of dismissal and remands the case to that court for further proceedings.