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Estoppel is a legal doctrine that prevents a person from adopting a position, action,
or attitude, asserting a fact or a right, or prevents one from denying a fact
inconsistent with an earlier position if it would result in an injury to someone else.
Collateral estoppel prevents a party to a lawsuit from raising a fact or issue which
was already decided against him in another lawsuit. Collateral estoppel is the legal
doctrine that holds that the determination of the facts litigated between the parties
to a proceeding are binding and conclusive on those parties in any future litigation.
It is also referred to as "issue preclusion". The constitutional ban on double
jeopardy includes the right to plead collateral estoppel.
Under collateral estoppel, once a court has decided an issue of fact or law
necessary to its judgment, that decision may preclude relitigation of the issue in a
suit on a different cause of action involving a party to the first case. The collateral
estoppel bar is inapplicable when the claimant did not have a 'full and fair
opportunity to litigate' the issue decided by the other court. Thus, a claimant can
file a federal suit to challenge the adequacy of state procedures. Ordinarily,
collateral estoppel is an affirmative defense that must be raised by the party
seeking to use it, or else it is waived.
Equitable estoppel prevents one party from taking a different position at trial than
she did at an earlier time if the other party would be harmed by the change.
Generally, the elements that need to be proved are:
It arises from a promise which the promisor should reasonably expect to induce
action or forebearance of a definite and substantial character on the part of the
promisee and which does induce such action or forebearance in binding if injustice
can be avoided only by enforcement of the promise.