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ESTOPPEL Definition & Legal Meaning

Definition & Citations:

A bar or impediment raised by the law, which precludes a man from alleging or from denying a certain fact or state of facts, in consequence of his previous allegation or denial or conduct or admission, or in consequence of a final adjudication of the matter in a court of law. Demarest v. Hopper, 22 N. J. Law, 019; Martin v. Railroad Co., 83 Me. 100, 21 Atl. 740; Yeeder v. Mudgett, 95 N. Y. 295; South v. Deaton, 113Ky. 312, 08 S. W. 137; Wilkins v. Suttles, 114 N. C. 550, 19 S. E 000.

A preclusion, in law, which prevents a man from alleging or denying a fact, in consequence of his own previous act, allegation, or denial of a contrary tenor. Steph. l’l.239.

An admission of so conclusive a nature that the party whom it affects is not permitted to aver against it or offer evidence to controvert it. 2 Smith, Lead. Cas. 778.

Estoppel is that which concludes and “shuts a man’s mouth from speaking the truth.” When a fact has been agreed on. or decided in a court of record, neither of the parties shall be allowed to call it in question, and have it tried over again at any time thereafter, so long as the judgment or decree stands unreversed; and when parties, by deed or solemn, act in pais, agree on a state of facts, and act on it, neither shall ever afterwards be allowed to gain say a fact so agreed on. or be heard to dispute it; in other words, his mouth is shut, and he shall not say that is not true which he had before in a solemn manner asserted to be true. Armfield v. Moore, 44 N. C. 157.

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