Court Opinion

ID: 9447352
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:32:47.53333+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:00.263706
License: Public Domain

LUMBARD, Chief Judge
(dissenting).
The majority, in holding that no record and satisfaction has been proved by the defendant, apparently decides that only when payment is accompanied by a written statement that it is in full satisfaction of the disputed sum may the court find such an agreement to compromise. I think that the majority view of the question is unsound. Whether an accord and satisfaction has been made out depends upon the intention of the parties, and not upon any particular manner of manifestation of their intent.
The historical facts of this case are scarcely in dispute; only the factual inference of the parties’ intention to be drawn from this evidence is disputed. I think that the one reasonable inference that can be drawn from examination of this evidence is that the parties believed the check for $52,000 to be in full settlement of the plaintiff’s claim. At the time it received the check plaintiff had demanded payment of a sum more than $5000 in excess of the amount of the check, and the defendant, to the knowledge of the plaintiff, had rejected this demand. The negotiations with the defendant for settlement of the claim had been carried on entirely through the plaintiff’s insurance broker. Though neither party submitted evidence as to what was said during the course of these negotiations, the broker’s view of the understanding ultimately reached is plain from the letter which he sent to the plaintiff accompanying the check. In it the broker states that the check is in “full and final payment” of the defendant’s liability. Undoubtedly, the broker thereby expressed his understanding of the outcome of his oral negotiations with the defendant. Certainly, the mere fact that defendant failed to include a covering letter with the check does not warrant the conclusion that it viewed the matter differently than the plaintiff’s broker. Having already orally made its position sufficiently clear that the broker understood the check to be full payment of the claim, the defendant was not required to reiterate this fact in writing when the check was mailed. That plaintiff well understood that the check was intended to constitute an accord and satisfaction is apparent not only from the broker’s letter, but from the fact that plaintiff hesitated for three weeks before depositing the check in its bank account. The only explanation for this delay, particularly in view of testimony at trial that plaintiff was short of cash at the time, is that it recognized the legal significance of depositing the check.
Considering all the circumstances of the case, I think that it was clearly erroneous for the court to hold that an accord and satisfaction had not been proved. I would therefore reverse and direct judgment for the defendant.