Combs v. The Cordish Companies, Inc., No. 15-3265 (8th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CasePlaintiffs Combs and Williams, on behalf of themselves individually and others similarly situated, filed a race discrimination suit against several entities with the District. Plaintiffs alleged that defendants engaged in a pattern and practice of racial discrimination that interfered with the ability of African American men to patronize bar and restaurant establishments in the District. The district court granted summary judgment to all defendants. The Eighth Circuit held that Combs was not judicially estopped from certain claims because they had not been listed as assets in his bankruptcy petition, and thus the district court abused its discretion by applying judicial estoppel to claims involving Defendants Mosaic and Tango. On the merits, there was insufficient evidence to support a rabbit scheme at Maker's Mark and LiveBlock. Furthermore, summary judgment was properly granted to Defendant First Response because plaintiffs failed to establish that First Response employed the security guards who escorted Combs out of the LiveBlock. Accordingly, the court affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.
Court Description: Kelly, Author, with Riley and Wollman, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Civil rights. In action alleging defendants, entities associated with the Power & Light Entertainment District in Kansas City, engaged in a pattern and practice of racial discrimination that interfered with the ability of African American men to patronize bars and restaurants in the District, the district court erred in finding plaintiff Combs was judicially estopped from asserting two incidents of alleged discrimination because the claims had not been listed as assets in his bankruptcy petition; these two incidents occurred after Combs filed his Chapter 7 and his cause of action had not accrued when he filed for bankruptcy relief; the claims were not property of the estate and could be asserted in this action; the district court did not err in granting defendants' motion for summary judgment on all but one of the claims arising from various instances of alleged discrimination; plaintiff Combs' claims against defendants Lounge KC and Cordish with respect to the one instance are remanded for trial.
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