Barnes v. Lolling

Plaintiff sued Defendants for personal injuries she sustained during an accident. The accident took place while Plaintiff’s bankruptcy proceeding was pending. Plaintiff did not disclose her potential cause of action to the bankruptcy trustee or schedule the cause of action as an asset of the bankruptcy estate. Plaintiff filed the personal injury claim five months after the bankruptcy court discharged her debts and closed the bankruptcy case. Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment alleging Plaintiff’s claim was barred under the doctrine of judicial estoppel, because she failed to disclose the claim during the bankruptcy proceedings, which the Court granted. Court properly granted Defendant’s motion, because all of the prerequisites for judicial estoppel were met. Plaintiff took inconsistent positions by failing to inform the bankruptcy court of her new asset of a personal injury claim, thus representing that no claim existed, and filing the personal injury cause of action. She intended the courts in each proceeding to accept the truth of the facts she alleged. Moreover, she received a benefit from the bankruptcy proceeding by having her unsecured debt discharged without having to increase her payments to her creditors in light of the claim. Additionally, Plaintiff lacked standing to bring the personal injury lawsuit until she moved to reopen the bankruptcy proceeding so that she could schedule the claim as an asset of the bankruptcy estate.