What is estoppel? What is collateral estoppel?
Answer
Estoppel is a legal doctrine or principle that prevents someone from asserting a right or making an argument that contradicts a position they held previously. It is a way of preventing people from going back on their word and protecting people who act based on someone's promise that they will or will not take a certain action. There are different types of estoppel:
- Collateral estoppel prevents someone from bringing the same grievance back to court as the plaintiff when a judge has already issued a ruling. This is to ensure that the court does not waste time litigating the same case multiple times.
- Estoppel by deed prevents someone from denying the truth of a statement in a deed that they have signed. This is often used in legal disputes about property ownership.
- Equitable estoppel prevents someone from taking a legal position that contradicts their previous actions or statements, when their doing so would harm someone else who accepted the original actions or statements in good faith and acted accordingly.
Because estoppel is legal doctrine that has arisen from case law and legal rulings issued over hundreds of years, there is not a single statute that defines estoppel. However, estoppel is mentioned in the context of dismissing an action in section 3211 of the Civil Practice Law & Rules (CPLR), and in the context of pleadings in section 3018 of the CPLR.