Gottlieb

In this action, plaintiff alleged that defendant, a coparticipant in a real estate venture, breached the parties’ agreement to fund the project, causing plaintiff to lose the deal. Defendant filed a cross-complaint against plaintiff and plaintiff’s companies, contending they had fraudulently obtained funds from him to pursue the deal. Plaintiff answered the cross-complaint. But plaintiff’s companies, which had no assets, defaulted. The ensuing default judgment recited that plaintiff had personally committed acts of fraud in securing funds from defendant.

The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of defendant on the complaint based on the doctrine of judicial estoppel, which protects the integrity of the judicial process by preventing a party from taking inconsistent positions in separate cases. In a prior bankruptcy case, plaintiff did not list any legal claims as assets, an omission seemingly at odds with the filing of this action. We conclude that, in accordance with the principles of judicial estoppel, the summary judgment must be reversed because the bankruptcy court did not adopt or accept the truth of plaintiff’s omission, eliminating any threat to judicial…