ESTOPPEL, the preclusion of a person from asserting a fact by previous conduct, in consistent therewith, on his own part or the part of those under whom he claims, or by an ad judication upon his rights which he cannot be allowed to call in question; 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; a plea which neither admits nor denies the facts alleged by the plaintiff, but denies his right to allege them. According to Blackstone, it is a special plea in bar, which happens where a man has done some act or executed some deed which precludes him from averring anything to the contrary. Where a fact has been asserted or admitted for the purpose of influencing the con duct or deriving a benefit from another, so that it cannot be denied without a breach of good faith, the law enforces the rule of good morals as a rule of policy and precludes the party from repudiating his representations or denying his admissions. (Rawle, Cor. 407.) This doctrine of law gives rise to a kind of pleading that is neither by way of traverse nor of confession and avoidance; that is, a pleading which, waiving any question of fact, relies merely upon the estoppel, and, after stating the previous act, allegation or denial of the oppo site party, praysjudgment if he shall be re ceived or admitted to aver contrary to what he before said or did. This pleading is called a pleading by way of estoppel. Until a recent period questions regarding estoppel arose almost entirely in relation to transfers of real estate and the rules in regard to one kind of estoppel were quite fully elaborated. The principle is now applied to all cases where one by words or conduct wilfully causes another to believe in the existence of a certain state of things, and induces him to act on that belief or to change his own previous situation.
Estoppels operate not only on present in terests, but on rights subsequently acquired. They operate, however, only between parties and privies and the party who pleads the es toppel must be one who was adversely affected by the act which constitutes the estoppel. An
estoppel may be by record, and by record in this connection is meant the record of a tribunal of a judicial character. An admission made in a pleading in a judicial proceeding cannot be contradicted by the person making it. So, ordi narily, the judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction cannot be impeached. If it deter mines the status of a person or thing, it is binding on all persons, whether rendered by a domestic or a foreign court. Judgments of this character are judgments in rem. If the judg ment is in personam, it is conclusive if rendered by a domestic tribunal, and is conclusive in some instances if rendered by a foreign tribunal. Legislature records also import absolute verity. (Bigelow on Estop. 33.) An estoppel by deed is such as• arises from the provisions of a deed. It is a general rule that a party to a deed is estopped to deny any thing stated therein which has operated upon the other party, as the inducement to accept and act under such deed, including a deed made with covenant of warranty, which estops even as to a subsequently acquired title. The deed must be good and valid in its form and execution to create an estoppel, and must convey no title upon which the warranty can operate in case of a covenant.
Estoppels must be reciprocal. An estoppel in pats, or equitable estoppel, occurs when a party to an action has by his act or declaration induced the other party to do some act or acts which otherwise would not have been done, or to omit to do simile act or acts which he would have done, and by means of which he has been injured. The principle underlying such estop pels is, that it would be a fraud in a party to assert what his previous conduct and admission have denied, when, on the faith of that denial, others have changed their situation. There must, however, as a rule, be some intended de ception in the conduct or declarations of the party to be estopped, or such gross negligence on his part as to amount to constructive fraud, by which another has been misled to his injury.