Daniel G. Hamm and Leo Paul Brooks v. Norfolk Southern Railway Company

Summary

The court held that the bankruptcy trustee was the real party in interest in Brooks's FELA claim and that the trial court abused its discretion by refusing to substitute the trustee after the bankruptcy estate was reopened. Judicial estoppel properly barred Brooks personally from pursuing any recovery beyond the amount needed to satisfy bankruptcy creditors and related expenses, but it did not bar the trustee, who had not taken inconsistent positions and was pursuing the claim for the estate. The judgment was therefore affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded with instructions. Justice Lyons concurred specially, agreeing with the result while arguing that the issue should be characterized as a curable real-party-in-interest defect rather than a jurisdictional standing defect.