Perry v. Blum, 09-1977

Perry v. Blum, 09-1977, involved a plaintiff's suit for an accounting of foreclosure proceeds and all rents collected between 1996 and 2002, claiming that as an equal partner in the company, he was entitled to one-half of the property's equity of redemption, arising from an underlying litigation, bankruptcy proceedings, and defendants' settlement with the FDIC.

In reversing in part, the court held that the district court erred as a matter of law in invoking the doctrine of judicial estoppel to limit the defendants' proof as to the amount owed on the notes, and as such, the judgment is vacated for the district court to determine the actual amount due on the notes at the relevant time and rework the accounting.  The court also held that the district court committed legal error in judicially estopping the defendants, based on third party's earlier representation, from attempting to prove that the amount due on the notes was more than $1,853,282.  However, the court affirmed in part in concluding that the district court neither erred nor abused its discretion in refusing to subtract the $5,000,000 payment before calculating the equity of redemption.  Lastly, the court held that the defendants have not identified any evidence which, had they been joined earlier, they could have introduced, nor have they made other showing of actual prejudice.

Related Resource:

• Full text of Perry v. Blum, 09-1977