Court Opinion

ID: 9861560
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 00:10:08.712345+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:28:40.466317
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE RARICK, specially concurring: I write this special concurrence because I believe claimant is estopped from requesting benefits in this case for her husband’s death. While some case language may suggest barring her claim under the principles of res judicata, I believe an even stronger case may be made under the doctrine of estoppel. The doctrine of res judicata provides that a final judgment on the merits rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction bars any subsequent actions between the same parties or their privies on the same claim, demand or cause of action. See A.W. Wendell & Sons, Inc. v. Qazi, 254 Ill. App. 3d 97, 108, 626 N.E.2d 280, 289 (1993). Claimant’s second claim for damages is not, however, identical to the first. In the first claim she sought benefits for injuries to her husband from a car accident occurring on February 7, 1989; the second claim involves benefits for his heart attack on November 25, 1989. The doctrine of judicial estoppel, on the other hand, provides that when a party assumes a particular position in one legal proceeding, that party is estopped from asserting a contrary position in a subsequent proceeding. See Galena Park Home v. Krughoff, 183 Ill. App. 3d 206, 208, 538 N.E.2d 1366, 1367 (1989). The doctrine is designed to promote the truth and to protect the integrity of the court system by preventing litigants from deliberately shifting positions to suit the exigencies of the moment. Bidani v. Lewis, 285 Ill. App. 3d 545, 550, 675 N.E.2d 647, 650 (1996). It does not turn on the identity of claims but rather on the taking of inconsistent positions. This is exactly what happened here. Claimant initially sought compensation for her husband’s fatal injuries incurred on February 7 as sworn to in her answers to interrogatories in the uninsured motorist arbitration proceeding, and now seeks compensation for his fatal injuries occurring on November 25 as stated in her second claim. Claimant’s husband suffered only one death. I believe that claimant is estopped from asserting such contrary positions and that, therefore, her second claim is barred. HOLDRIDGE, J., joins this special concurrence.