Opinion ID: 71483
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Estoppel Based on Prior Arguments

Text: Initially, we note that it is perhaps possible that Miller should be estopped from making his current argument. See generally Hopkins v. Cornerstone Am., 545 F.3d 338, 347 (5th Cir.2008), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 1635, 173 L.Ed.2d 998 (2009) (Judicial estoppel is an equitable doctrine that `prevents a party from asserting a position in a legal proceeding that is contrary to a position previously taken in the same or some earlier proceeding.' (quoting Hall v. GE Plastic Pac. PTE Ltd., 327 F.3d 391, 396 (5th Cir. 2003))). In Miller's Petition for a Reduction in Court-Ordered Mandatory Victim Restitution, which he filed on June 17, 2004, and in his first petition for a writ of audita querela, he argued that he had known the district court's restitution order was incorrect when it was issued, but that he had failed to object due to the ineffective assistance of counsel. Specifically, he asserted that, before his sentencing, he had returned $100,000.00 of the money he had embezzled from MSM in the form of a subordinated investment note that later matured into the $170,405.00 at issue in this appeal. The Government contested this assertion in its Pre-Sentence Report (PSR), arguing that, instead of returning this $100,000.00, he had spent it on a swimming pool in his backyard. Accordingly, the Government listed this amount as stolen in the PSR's restitution calculations. Although Miller's attorney objected to this listing in Miller's written objections to the PSR, he failed to raise the issue before the district court at sentencing. The chief problem with this argument was identified by the district court in its order dismissing Miller's first petition for a writ of audita querela. Audita querela is only available where the judgment of the district court was correct at the time it was rendered, but is undermined by facts that later come to light. If Miller knew that the restitution order was incorrect at the time it was issued and failed to object to it due to the ineffective assistance of counsel, then the judgment was infirm from the beginning. Even though the absolute proof of this infirmity did not arise until May 2004, audita querela would be inappropriate to remedy the error, because the judgment was infirm at the time it was rendered due to the ineffective assistance of Miller's counsel. However, we will ignore the issue of estoppel, because we find that Miller cannot mount a viable case for the issuance now of a writ of audita querela under the facts he has alleged in his second petition and his briefs.