Lisa Kramer, F/K/A Lisa Kastleman v. Bryan Kastleman

The acceptance-of-benefits doctrine precludes a litigant from challenging a judgment after voluntarily accepting the judgment’s benefits: “A litigant cannot treat a judgment as both right and wrong.” 1 Applying this estoppel-based equitable doctrine, 2 the court of appeals dismissed the petitioner’s appeal challenging the property-division and child-welfare provisions of a final divorce decree. 3

We last examined the acceptance-of-benefits doctrine more than sixty-five years ago in Carle v. Carle, which is the only time we have applied the doctrine in a marital-dissolution case. 4 We granted…