The article is devoted to the study of the extinguishing effect of a court decision in the context of historical and modern discussions. The author analyzes the positions of German and Russian proceduralists (O. Bülow, M. Pagenstecher, N.N. Rozin, M.A. Gurvich) on the possibility of replacing material legal relations with a court decision. The main conclusion of the article is that the extinguishing effect extends not to the actual circumstances with which the legal relations are associated, but to the protective claims necessary for their protection. It is proved that the procedural behavior of the parties (proof or lack thereof) affects exclusively the possibility of realizing these claims, but does not change the objective facts. The author proposes to reconsider the traditional understanding of prejudice, limiting its effect to the framework of a specific dispute, which will avoid contradictions between the court decision and the real circumstances.