Sandra Marshall v. Honeywell Technology Systems

828 F.3d 923, 424 U.S. App. D.C. 101, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 12759, 62 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 228, 129 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 584, 2016 WL 3726039
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedJuly 12, 2016
Docket14-7190
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 828 F.3d 923 (Sandra Marshall v. Honeywell Technology Systems) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sandra Marshall v. Honeywell Technology Systems, 828 F.3d 923, 424 U.S. App. D.C. 101, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 12759, 62 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 228, 129 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 584, 2016 WL 3726039 (D.C. Cir. 2016).

Opinions

Dissenting opinion filed by Circuit Judge GRIFFITH.

RANDOLPH, Senior Circuit Judge:

Sandra Marshall’s appeal is from the district court’s grant of summary judgment dismissing her discrimination complaint on the ground of “judicial estoppel,” stemming from her failure to disclose this lawsuit and related administrative proceedings on the schedules she filed with the bankruptcy court.

Marshall worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Maryland, making $50,000 a year as a “voice control manager.” Her co-employers were Honeywell Technology Solutions, Inc.,1 a government contractor, and L-3 Communications Government Services, Inc., a subcontractor now known as Engility. In late 2003, another company, SGT, Inc., took over the subcontract under Honeywell. SGT interviewed Marshall but did not hire her.

On December 29, 2003, Marshall filed charges against SGT with a Maryland human relations commission and with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging that SGT had unlawfully discriminated against her based on her race and sex and that SGT retaliated against her because she had filed other discrimination complaints against other companies. In February 2004 — the dates and the sequence of filings have some significance— Marshall filed two additional charges with the same agencies, one against Honeywell, the other against Engility. Both of her charges also alleged race and sex discrimination and retaliation. By this time, Marshall therefore had three ongoing administrative proceedings against three separate companies, none of which were affiliated with each other. In August 2005, Marshall retained attorney JoAnn P. Myles to represent her in these proceedings and in any lawsuits that might result from them.

In September 2005, while her three EEOC proceedings were going forward, Marshall filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia. See 11 U.S.C. § 301. Marshall was then residing in Washington, D.C. Freshstart Solutions, Inc. served as her “bankruptcy petition preparer,” see 11 U.S.C. § 110, charging her a fee of $185.00.2 This was Marshall’s [925]*925second bankruptcy petition in ten years. The Bankruptcy Code bars individuals from filing a new Chapter 7 petition within eight years of an earlier petition. 11 U.S.C. § 727(a)(8). Marshall had filed her 1995 petition with the assistance of an attorney in federal bankruptcy court in Baltimore, Maryland. That court granted her a discharge.

One of the schedules Marshall submitted with her September 2005 petition required her to list “all suits and administrative proceedings” to which she “is or was a party within one year” preceding her bankruptcy petition. On her “Statement of Financial Affairs,” Marshall listed three such matters. Two were civil actions in which she was a defendant. She gave the name of the court and its location in each case; in both she reported that judgment had been entered against her. The third matter she listed — “Internal Revenue Service vs Sandra McDougald”3 — was an administrative proceeding that had not yet ripened into a judicial proceeding: Marshall left a blank under the form’s heading “COURT OR AGENCY AND LOCATION.” The only detail she provided was that the IRS matter was “Pending.” On her Schedule E — “Creditors Holding Unsecured Priority Claims” — she listed the IRS “Insolvency Div” as a creditor in the amount of $5,500.4

Nowhere on her Statement of Financial Affairs (or on any other schedule) did Marshall disclose her three administrative proceedings against SGT, Honeywell, and En-gility. Under penalty of perjury, she signed the Statement and affirmed that her answers were “true and correct.” She also filed a “Personal Property” schedule, which required her to disclose all “contingent and unliquidated claims of every nature ....” See 11 U.S.O. § 521(a)(l)(B)(ii). Again she stated under penalty of perjury that she had “None.” On her Schedule F— “Creditors Holding Unsecured Nonpriority Claims” — Marshall listed “Joann Myles, Esquire.” Myles was the attorney representing Marshall in the three EEOC proceedings. Marshall did not report how much she then owed Myles. Her debts, including priority and nonpriority claims of 50 creditors, totaled $135,884.74. She reported total assets of $100.

Two months after she filed for bankruptcy, in the fall of 2005, Marshall attended a meeting of creditors, although none of her creditors attended. See 11 U.S.C. § 341. During the session, in response to the trustee’s written interrogatories and the trustee’s questioning, Marshall revealed that she had “an EEOC claim.” When the trustee asked, “Against whom?” Marshall replied, “Honeywell.” As to the status of her claim, she said it was “pending.” The trustee then asked whether she had an attorney representing her in the Honeywell proceeding. She answered yes and, at the trustee’s urging, she identified [926]*926her attorney as JoAnn Myles and provided Myles’ telephone number. Attorney Myles already knew of Marshall’s Chapter 7 filing. As a creditor herself, she had received notice from the bankruptcy court. According to Marshall and Myles, her attorney later had a telephone conversation with the trustee and informed him of Marshall’s other two administrative proceedings against Engility and SGT.

On December 30, 2005, Myles filed on Marshall’s behalf a complaint in federal district court in Washington, D.C. against Honeywell, Engility, and SGT. Marshall’s complaint contained a single count alleging age discrimination in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq. She sought more than two million dollars in damages. Paragraph 9 of her complaint stated that “prior to filing this civil action” Marshall had filed “a written charge of age discrimination with” the EEOC and the local human rights commission. That statement was false. Marshall did not lodge an age discrimination charge before those agencies until after she filed the lawsuit. In the next paragraph, Marshall stated that she “filed this action subsequent to the expiration of sixty (60) days from the filing of a charge of age discrimination with the [Maryland human rights commission] and the EEOC _” That too was false.5

Under the bankruptcy rules, “a debtor is under a duty both to disclose the existence of pending lawsuits when he files a petition in bankruptcy and to amend his petition if circumstances change during the course of the bankruptcy.” Moses v. Howard Univ. Hosp., 606 F.3d 789, 793 (D.C. car. 2010); see 11 U.S.C. § 541(a)(7).

“[W]hen an estate is in bankruptcy under Chapter 7,” as Marshall’s estate was at the time, “the trustee is the representative of the estate and retains the sole authority to sue and be sued on its behalf.” Moses,

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828 F.3d 923, 424 U.S. App. D.C. 101, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 12759, 62 Bankr. Ct. Dec. (CRR) 228, 129 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 584, 2016 WL 3726039, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sandra-marshall-v-honeywell-technology-systems-cadc-2016.