Wooley v. Haynes & Boone, L.L.P. (In re SI Restructuring Inc.)

Summarized by Richard Corbi , Otterbourg P.C.
13 years 8 months ago

Citation:

No. 11-51108 (5th Cir. July 5, 2012)

Tag(s):

Ruling:

The Fifth Circuit explained that although a court may take judicial notice of a document filed in another court to establish the fact of such litigation and related findings, a court cannot take judicial notice of the factual findings of another court. There was no reason, according to the Fifth Circuit, to require a court to take judicial notice of the contents of evidence not properly introduced in the bankruptcy proceedings.

Procedural context:

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals AFFIRMED the District Court's ruling that AFFIRMED the bankruptcy court's ruling striking certain documents that parties tried to desginate as part of a record on appeal.

Facts:

John C. Wooley and Jeffery J. Wooley (the "Wooleys"), the former directors and officers of Schlotsky's, Inc., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August 2004, sought permission from the bankruptcy court to sue the law firm of Haynes & Boone and former outside directors on behalf of the bankruptcy estate. The bankruptcy court denied the request to sue. At a hearing, the Wooleys' attorney requested that the bankruptcy court take judicial notice of evidence their expert relied upon that was previously admitted in a different adversary proceeding. The bankruptcy court declied to take judicial notice. The Wooleys appealed and designated those documents as part of the record even though they were never property admitted into evidence in the proceeding in which they sought permission to sue on behalf of the estate.

Judge(s):

Dennis, Clement, Owen

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