Lewis v. Crelia

229 S.W.3d 19, 365 Ark. 330
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 16, 2006
Docket05-660
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 229 S.W.3d 19 (Lewis v. Crelia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lewis v. Crelia, 229 S.W.3d 19, 365 Ark. 330 (Ark. 2006).

Opinion

Jim Gunter, Justice.

Appellant Arthur Lewis appeals from an order of the Pope County Circuit Court granting summary judgment in favor of appellees, Al M. Crelia, The Lendel Vines Company, Edward Bramlett, and Covenant Transport, Inc. We reverse the circuit court’s order granting summary judgment and remand for trial.

On June 8, 2001, Mr. Lewis was injured in a multi-vehicle accident on Interstate 40. On December 11, 2002, he filed a complaint against the appellees, alleging that their negligence caused the accident and his resulting injuries. On July 28, 2003, Mr. Lewis filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. He was represented in the bankruptcy court by an attorney other than the one representing him in this action. In the schedule attached to the bankruptcy petition requesting Mr. Lewis to identify any contingent and unliquidated claims that he had, Mr. Lewis failed to identify this lawsuit. Mr. Lewis also failed to identify this lawsuit in the Statement of Financial Affairs attached to the petition, which requested a list of all suits and administrative proceedings to which the debtor is or was a party within one year immediately preceding the filing of the petition. It is this failure to list a potential asset in the bankruptcy proceeding which led to the summary-judgment order in this case. On December 30, 2003, the bankruptcy court entered an order fully and completely discharging Mr. Lewis from his debts.

Onjuly 9 and 21, 2004, appellees filed motions for summary judgment on the basis of judicial estoppel. They attached as exhibits to the motion Mr. Lewis’s bankruptcy petition and schedules, the Statement of Financial Affairs, and an excerpt from Mr. Lewis’s deposition in this case. Mr. Lewis responded, attached an additional excerpt from his deposition, and claimed that the omission was a mistake and that he had no intent to manipulate the judicial process. The circuit court granted the motions and dismissed Mr. Lewis’s complaint with prejudice, holding that he was judicially estopped by his bankruptcy proceeding from bringing this lawsuit. Mr. Lewis appeals.

We set forth our standard of review of a circuit court’s order granting summary judgment in Jordan v. Diamond Equipment & Supply Co., 362 Ark. 142, 207 S.W.3d 525 (2005), stating:

Summary judgment should be granted only when it is clear that there are no genuine issues of material fact to be litigated, and the party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Riverdale Development Co. v. Ruffin Building Systems Inc., 356 Ark. 90, 146 S.W.3d 852 (2004); Craighead Elec. Coop. Corp. v. Craighead County, 352 Ark. 76, 98 S.W.3d 414 (2003); Cole v. Laws, 349 Ark. 177, 76 S.W.3d 878 (2002). The burden of sustaining a motion for summary judgment is the responsibility of the moving party. Pugh v. Griggs, 327 Ark. 577, 940 S.W.2d 445 (1997). Once the moving party has established a prima facie entitlement to summary judgment, the non-moving party must meet proof with proof and demonstrate the existence of a material issue of fact. Id. On appellate review, we determine if summary judgment was appropriate based on whether the evidence presented by the moving party in support of its motion leaves a material fact unanswered. George v. Jefferson Hosp. Ass’n Inc., 337 Ark. 206, 987 S.W.2d 710 (1999). We view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, resolving all doubts and inferences against the moving party. Adams v. Arthur, 333 Ark. 53, 969 S.W.2d 598 (1998).

Jordan, supra.

Mr. Lewis argues that the circuit court erred in granting appellees’ motions for summary judgment because there is a genuine issue of material fact with regard to whether he had the intent to manipulate the judicial process to gain an unfair advantage, which, in Arkansas, is an element of a prima facie case of judicial estoppel. He states that questions of intent are generally inappropriate for summary judgment. See Chlanda v. Estate of Fuller, 326 Ark. 551, 932 S.W.2d 760 (1996).

Appellees respond that there is no genuine issue of material fact with regard to intent, as the only “proof’ provided by Mr. Lewis on this issue is his conclusory and self-serving argument denying intent. They argue that conclusory allegations are insufficient to create a fact issue in a summary-judgment situation. Sundeen v. Kroger, 355 Ark. 138, 133 S.W.3d 393 (2003). Appellees claim that the circumstances and Mr. Lewis’s actions both at the time of the bankruptcy filing and after the filing clearly prove that he intended to manipulate the judicial process.

The purpose behind judicial estoppel is protection and preservation of the judicial process. Dupwe v. Wallace, 355 Ark. 521, 140 S.W.3d 464 (2004). It is designed to prevent parties from “playing fast and loose with the courts” and ensures a court’s right “to rely on representations made in court.” Id. at 532, 140 S.W.3d at 471.

We listed the elements of a primafacie case ofjudicial estoppel in Dupwe:

1. A party must assume a position clearly inconsistent with a position taken in an earlier case, or with a position taken in the same case;
2. A party must assume the inconsistent position with the intent to manipulate the judicial process to gain an unfair advantage;
3. A party must have successfully maintained the position in an earlier proceeding such that the court relied upon the position taken; and
4. The integrity of the judicial process of at least one court must be impaired or injured by the inconsistent positions taken.

Id. at 525-26,140 S.W.3d at 466. Mr. Lewis has conceded with regard to elements 1, 3, and 4. Therefore, the only issue before us is whether the second element has been satisfied. Specifically, we must determine whether the circuit court erred in holding that there was no genuine issue of material fact that Mr. Lewis had the intent to manipulate the judicial process to gain an unfair advantage. See id.

The doctrine ofjudicial estoppel is particularly important in bankruptcy cases because the integrity of the bankruptcy system depends upon full and honest disclosure by debtors of all of their assets. Rosenshein v. Kleban, 918 F. Supp. 98 (S.D.N.Y. 1996). On the question of intent, the issue in a bankruptcy setting is whether there was improper manipulation of the judiciary. Dupwe, 355 Ark. at 535, 140 S.W.3d at 472.

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Bluebook (online)
229 S.W.3d 19, 365 Ark. 330, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lewis-v-crelia-ark-2006.