"chose jugée" or "res judicata" means that the matter has been judged : the issue has been decided by another court, with the same parties

In English, the latin expression res judicata is very commonly used, I would not be hesitant to use it here with the equivalent in English in parenthesis

see the definition of chose jugée in the Grand dictionnaire terminologique de l'Office de la Langue Française du Québec at :


chose jugée n. f.
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Définition :
Autorité attaché à un acte de juridiction servant de fondement à l'exécution forcée du droit judiciairement établi, et faisant obstacle à ce que la même affaire soit à nouveau portée devant un juge.
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. Note(s) :
On parle de simple autorité lorsque le jugement est rendu, de force de chose jugée, lorsque les détails des voies de recours ordinaires sont expirés ou que celles-ci ont été employées, d'irrévocabilité, enfin, lorsque les voies de recours extraordinaires ont été utilisées ou ne peuvent plus l'être. L'autorité de chose jugée est relative ou absolue. Elle est le plus souvent relative en droit privé et dans certaines formes du contentieux administratif. Elle est invoquée par les parties au moyen d'une fin de non recevoir (dite faussement exception de chose jugée), par les tiers à l'aide de l'exception de relativité de chose jugée. Il y a chose jugée lorsque la même demande, entre les même parties, agissant en les même qualités, portant sur le même objet, soutenue par la même cause, est à nouveau portée, devant une juridiction. L'autorité absolue de la chose jugée est attachée aux jugements pénaux, à certains jugements administratifs. En procédure civile, les jugements constitutifs (séparation de corps, divorce, règlement judiciaire ou liquidation des biens, par ex.) ont une autorité absolue. Il en va de même pour les jugements rendus en matière de filiation et de nationalité. Voir le terme res inter alios judicata.


see : http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Res judicata
res judicata (rayz judy-cot-ah) n. Latin, the thing has been judged, meaning the issue before the court has already been decided by another court, with the same parties. Therefore, the court will dismiss the case before it as being useless. Example: an Ohio court determines that John is the father of Betty's child. John cannot raise the issue again in another state. Sometimes called res adjudicata.
Copyright © 1981-2005 by Gerald N. Hill and Kathleen T. Hill. All Right reserved.

RES JUDICATA, practice. The decision of a legal or equitable issue, by a court of competent jurisdiction.
2. It is a general principle that such decision is binding and conclusive upon all other courts of concurrent power. This principle pervades not only our own, but all other systems of jurisprudence, and has become a rule of universal law, founded on the soundest policy. If, therefore, Paul sue Peter to recover the amount due to him upon a bond and on the trial the plaintiff fails to prove the due execution of the bond by Peter, in consequence of which a verdict is rendered for the defendant, and judgment is entered thereupon, this judgment, till reversed on error, is conclusive upon the parties, and Paul cannot recover in a subsequent suit, although he may then be able to prove the due execution of the bond by Peter, and that the money is due to him, for, to use the language of the civilians, res judicata facit ex albo nigrum, ex nigro album, ex curvo redum, ex recto curvum.
3. The constitution of the United States and the amendments to it declare, that no fact, once tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexaminable in any court of the United States than according to the rules of the common law. 3 Pet. 433; Dig. 44, 2; and Voet, Ibid; Kaime's Equity, vol. 2, p. 367; 1 Johns. Ch. R. 95; 2 M. R. 142; 3 M. R. 623; 4 M. R. 313, 456, 481; 5 M. R. 282, 465; 9 M. R. 38; 11 M. R. 607; 6 N. S. 292; 5 N. S. 664; 1 L. R. 318; 8 L. R. 187; 11 L. R. 517. Toullier, Droit Civil Francais, vol. 10, No. 65 to 259.
4. But in order to make a matter res judicata there must be a concurrence of the four conditions following, namely: 1. Identity in the thing sued for. 2. Identity of the cause of action; if, for example, I have claimed a right of way over Blackacre, and a final judgment has been rendered against me, and afterwards I purchase Blackacre, this first decision shall not be a bar to my recovery, when I sue as owner of the land, and not for an easement over it, which I claimed as a right appurtenant to My land Whiteacre. 3. Identity of persons and of parties to the action; this rule is a necessary consequence of the rule of natural justice: ne inauditus condemnetur. 4. Identity of the quality in the persons for or against whom the claim is made; for example, an action by Peter to recover a horse, and a final judgment against him, is no bar to an action by Peter, administrator of Paul, to recover the same horse. Vide, Things adjudged.

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Note added at 16 hrs (2009-09-03 05:51:46 GMT)
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Sorry here is the link to the GDT : http://www.granddictionnaire.com/BTML/FRA/r_Motclef/index102...

see also : the English equivalent : "case tried in last resort" at http://www.granddictionnaire.com/BTML/FRA/r_Motclef/index102...