Plaintiff filed a personal injury lawsuit seeking recovery for injuries he sustained in a workplace accident. Plaintiff later filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy proceedings where he failed to disclose the personal injury lawsuit. Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that judicial estoppel prohibited plaintiff from pursuing his personal injury lawsuit and that plaintiff lacked standing to pursue the lawsuit because the injury claim belonged to the bankruptcy estate. The circuit court granted the motion and the appellate court reversed. The Illinois Supreme Court granted defendant’s petition for leave to appeal and affirmed the appellate court, finding that defendant’s right to judgment was not clear and free from doubt where reasonable persons could draw divergent inferences from the undisputed facts and could conclude that plaintiff’s actions in the bankruptcy proceedings resulted from confusion and inadvertence and not an intent to deceive. (THEIS, NEVILLE, OVERSTREET, and CUNNINGHAM, concurring. ROCHFORD and O’BRIEN took no part in the decision.)
Illinois Supreme Court
Civil Court
Tort Law