Sandra Slater v. United States Steel Corporation
Opinion
Sandra Slater failed to disclose to the Bankruptcy Court in her pending Chapter 7 case the employment discrimination claims she was prosecuting in the instant case against U.S. Steel Corporation. Upon discovering Slater's failure to disclose the claims to the Bankruptcy Court, U.S. Steel, citing our precedent in
Burnes v. Pemco Aeroplex, Inc.
,
Upon rehearing
en banc
, this Court overruled the portions of
Burnes
1
"that permitted the inference that a plaintiff intended to make a mockery of the judicial system simply because he failed to disclose a civil claim" and remanded the case to the panel for further consideration of the District Court's judicial estoppel ruling.
Slater v. U.S. Steel Corp.
("
Slater II
"),
In Slater II , we said that
to determine whether a plaintiff's inconsistent statements were calculated to make a mockery of the judicial system, a court should look to all the facts and circumstances of the particular case. When the plaintiff's inconsistent statement comes in the form of an omission in bankruptcy disclosures, the court may consider such factors as the plaintiff's level of sophistication, whether and under what circumstances the plaintiff corrected the disclosures, whether the plaintiff told his bankruptcy attorney about the civil claims before filing the bankruptcy disclosures, whether the trustee or creditors were aware of the civil lawsuit or claims before the plaintiff amended the disclosures, whether the *1330 plaintiff identified other lawsuits to which he was party, and any findings or actions by the bankruptcy court after the omission was discovered.
The District Court, bound as it was by Burnes , considered none of these factors in granting U.S. Steel's motion for summary judgment. Its application of the judicial estoppel doctrine therefore constituted an abuse of discretion. For that reason, we vacate its summary judgment order and remand the case for further proceedings not inconsistent herewith.
VACATED AND REMANDED.
Also overruled was the portion of
Barger v. City of Cartersville
,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Sandra SLATER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. U.S. STEEL CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee.
- Status
- Published