Court Opinion

ID: 9574269
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:03:46.550644+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:44:18.312233
License: Public Domain

Gunter, Justice,
concurring specially.
I concur in the court’s judgment affirming the denial of the motion by the appellants for summary judgment. However, on the basis of the summary judgment evidence in this case, I would proceed one step further than the opinion of the court seems to me to go.
Although the appellee here testified that he' could *309read and that he had signed papers in this case without reading them, he also testified that he did not know what a release was, that is, that he did not know the meaning of the word "release.” Although a person may be able to read, if he is unable to understand the words that he reads in a document, the reading of the document by him is merely an exercise in futility.
In situations of marked mental disparity between a person procuring the execution of a release and the person signing the release, it is my view that a fact issue for determination is presented when the signer of the release, even though he had the ability to read, did not read the release and contends that it was necessary to rely upon the representations of the opposite party as to the meaning of the document.
In short, I think that the appellee here should have the opportunity to attempt to convince the fact-finder that, even though he could read, it would have been futile for him to have read the document presented to him; and that he had to rely on the representations of his employer with respect to what the document meant.
I concur in the judgment.