Keathley v. Buddy Ayers Construction, Inc. · ¶26

While this Court has never applied judicial estoppel in the bankruptcy context, in a different context we left open whether it “may be appropriate to resist application of judicial estoppel” when the party’s prior inconsistent position was due to “inadvertence or mistake.” New Hampshire, 532 U. S., at 753. For purposes of this opinion, we assume without deciding that judicial estoppel can apply in the bankruptcy context and that “inadvertence or mistake” can function as an exception to that application. Operating under those assumptions, the Fifth Circuit’s understanding of “inadvertence or mistake” is simultaneously too rigid and too broad.

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