Georgia Supreme Court affirms wife's omissions in bankruptcy case don't bar alimony, property claims.

Byline: Lawyers Weekly USA Staff

A wife was not barred from seeking alimony and property in her divorce case by her initial failure to list those claims as assets in her bankruptcy petition, the Georgia Supreme Court has ruled in affirming judgment.

The wife sought Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection after filing for divorce. In her asset statement filed in the bankruptcy case, she wife checked "none" in the section asking her to list "[a]limony, maintenance, support, and property settlements to which [the debtor] is or may be entitled."

The bankruptcy court granted the wife a discharge while her divorce case was still pending.

The husband argued that the wife's failure to disclose her entitlement to alimony and property division in her bankruptcy case estopped her from pursuing those claims in her divorce.

But the court disagreed, observing that the wife, in response to the husband's motion for summary judgment in the divorce proceeding, had reopened her bankruptcy case to amend her schedule of assets to include her divorce claims.

"Generally, judicial estoppel is inapplicable when a plaintiff has ...