California Injury Attorney Blog

The equitable doctrine of judicial estoppel can be invoked to prevent a party from taking a position contrary to one the party advanced in prior litigation says California Business Lawyer Steven C. Peck.

The purpose of the doctrine has been stated in multiple, but substantially similar, forms: to "protect the integrity of the judicial process," Jackson v. County of Los Angeles; to "protect against a litigant playing fast and loose with the courts"; and to implement "general considerations of the orderly administration of justice and regard for the dignity of judicial proceedings," Prilliman v. United Air Lines, Inc.

While the doctrine of judicial estoppel has long been recognized in California, as of 1998 the California courts had not established a clear set of principles for applying it (i.e., a standard with well-defined elements). Instead, the courts had merely recited certain observations about the doctrine, such as that "one to whom two inconsistent courses of action are open and who elects to pursue one of them is afterward precluded from pursuing the other," that the "seemingly conflicting positions must be clearly inconsistent so that the one necessarily excludes the other," and that the doctrine "cannot be invoked where the position first assumed was taken as a result of ignorance or mistake."indicates California Business Attorney Steven C. Peck.

The uncertainty disappeared in 1998 with the publication of Jackson v. County of Los Angeles by the Second District Court of Appeal, which held that the doctrine of judicial estoppel "should apply" whenever:
(1) the same party has taken two positions; (2) the positions were taken in judicial or quasi-judicial administrative proceedings; (3) the party was successful in asserting the first position (i.e., the tribunal adopted the position or accepted it as true); (4) the two positions are totally inconsistent; and (5) the first position was not taken as a result of ignorance, fraud, or mistake.