513 F. App'x 212

Frank DOMBROSKI, Appellant v. J.P. MORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A.

No. 12-1419.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) Dec. 17, 2012.

Filed: Feb. 4, 2013.

*213Steven R. Rowland, Esq., Berman, Sau-ter, Record & Jardim, Morristown, NJ, for Appellant.

August W. Heckman, III, Esq., Thomas A. Linthorst, Esq., Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Princeton, NJ, for J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, NA.

Before: McKEE, Chief Judge, SLOVITER and VANASKIE, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

McKEE, Chief Judge.

Frank Dombroski appeals the district court’s January 24, 2012 order denying leave to amend his Amended Complaint alleging a breach of contract. The court initially dismissed Dombroski’s Amended Complaint, without prejudice, and ordered that he seek leave to further amend. The court’s January 24th order denied leave to amend based on the court’s conclusion that a second amendment would be futile. For the reasons discussed below, we will affirm.1

I.

Since we write primarily for the parties who are familiar with this case, we only briefly recite essential facts.2

Dombroski claims that the contractual disclaimer in Chase’s Code of Conduct is not sufficiently prominent and clear to preclude formation of a contract between him and Chase. His argument is essentially a claim that the disputed language of the disclaimer could have been clearer and more prominent. We do not doubt that is true. However, it is apparent that the language was sufficiently prominent and clear to negate Dombroski’s attempt to claim that the Code of Conduct was a contract that Chase breached. In the *214opinion filed January, 24, 2012, the district court adequately explained why Chase was entitled to judgment as a matter of law on Dombroski’s breach of contract claim. Accordingly, we will affirm the district court’s rejection of that claim substantially for the reasons set forth in its opinion.

We do, however, believe the district court’s analysis of Dombroski’s judicial es-toppel claim is flawed. The court relied upon our decision in G-I Holdings, Inc. v. Reliance Ins. Co., 586 F.3d 247, 262 (3d Cir.2009), in concluding that judicial estop-pel does not apply unless the party to be estopped prevailed in the prior litigation in which it took a position contrary to the position it was currently taking before the court. See Dombroski v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., No. 11-3771, 2012 WL 214343, at *2-3 (D.N.J. Jan. 24, 2012). That misinterprets our decision in G-I Holdings.

In denying Dombroski’s judicial estoppel claim, the district court relied on the fact that the district court in G-I Holdings “never accepted Hartford’s prior [contradictory] position.” 586 F.3d at 262. However, the district court here failed to appreciate that that was not the basis of the holding. Rather, in G-I Holdings, we noted that “Hartford withdrew [the contradictory] position and asserted its new one ... before the Court ruled on its motion to dismiss.” Id. Moreover, the district court here failed to appreciate that the analysis in G-I Holdings specifically noted that: “in Krystal Cadillac-Oldsmobile GMC Truck, Inc. v. General Motors Corp., 337 F.3d 314 (3d Cir.2003), a bankruptcy case, we applied judicial estoppel even though no court had ever relied on the debtor’s position.” G-I Holdings, 586 F.3d at 262.

Accordingly, the district court erred in holding that judicial estoppel does not apply based on Chase’s unsuccessful assertion of a contradictory position in Pinsky v. JP Morgan Chase & Co., 576 F.Supp.2d 559, 563 (S.D.N.Y.2008).3

Moreover, in G-I Holdings, we also explained that, we “apply [judicial estoppel] to neutralize threats to judicial integrity however they may arise.” Id. Here, judicial integrity is not threatened by refusing to create a contract between Dombroski and Chase. In fact, the opposite is true. We cannot ignore the plain disclaimer in the Code of Conduct and fashion a contract that was not intended. “[E]stoppel will not operate to create a contract that never existed [and] the court will not write a new contract for the parties by estop-pel.” Ayer v. Bd. of Ed. of Cent. Sch. Dist. No. 1, 69 Misc.2d 696, 330 N.Y.S.2d 465, 468-69 (Sup.Ct.1972) (internal citations omitted); see also Fin. Tech. Int’l, Inc. v. Smith, 247 F.Supp.2d 397, 409 n. 8 (S.D.N.Y.2002) (“estoppel may not be used to create rights where they do not already exist, but simply to prevent a party from enforcing rights which would result in a fraud or injustice.”) (internal citations omitted).4

Thus, despite the district court’s misinterpretation of G-I Holdings, and even *215though Chase does appear to be taking a position here that is inconsistent with the prior position it took in the Pinsky litigation in New York, it is clear that the district court was correct in refusing to create a contractual relationship between Dombroski and Chase, in dismissing Dom-broski’s complaint and in concluding that Dombroski’s attempt to amend the complaint would have been futile. Accordingly, the district court did not err in dismissing Dombroski’s complaint for failure to state a claim.5

II.

For the reasons set forth above, we will affirm the district Court’s dismissal of the Amended Complaint and its refusal to allow leave to further amend.

Dombroski v. J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.
513 F. App'x 212

Case Details

Name
Dombroski v. J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.
Decision Date
Feb 4, 2013
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513 F. App'x 212

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United States

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