Court Opinion

ID: 9849191
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:35:56.574126+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:05.983125
License: Public Domain

*458Felton, Justice,
concurring in the judgments and the first division of the opinion, and dissenting from the second division of the opinion.
1. I would go a step or steps further in holding that the complaints against the appellees are permissible as a matter of law:
First, for the simple and obvious reason that such a release as is relied on in this case is completely devoid of consideration. As a matter of law the parties cannot claim that there is consideration for the release as to the appellee. The consideration is the relief of the original tortfeasors from claims resulting from the collision causing injuries to the appellants in which the appellants were not involved. Neither party to the release can claim that he or she is a self-appointed agent or representative of an unknown person to release from liability a party, who is not liable in tort or otherwise for the original injury, from damages for a separate tort not yet committed and wholly disconnected from the original injuries. The parties to the release cannot fictionally create such a liability and cause a release therefrom to be a legal, moral and legitimate consideration, where it could not be anticipated by either party. Such a release cannot make real a catch-all imaginary release from a tort separate and distinct from the original tort and without identifying the party released. It is true that a contract may be supported, where a third-party beneficiary is concerned, by a consideration furnished by a party to the contract where the subject matter and beneficiaries are identified where the contract clearly shows all of the necessary ingredients of the consideration bestowed on the third party. The law now provides that a third-party beneficiary may sue in his own name but he must be a party on whom the party or parties bestowing a benefit have a right to do it. They cannot cast out a wide net and release someone whom they do not represent from a claim with which they have no possible concern except to meddle with other parties’ business. Under the circumstances in this case, as a matter of judicial construction, *459the contract is totally without consideration, for the reason that the parties had no right to provide for a release from liability of anyone who was not involved in the collision causing the original tortious injuries.
2. The contract of release in this case insofar as all parties are concerned, is patently against public policy. To do what the appellees are seeking to do in this case is so repulsive to the conscientious scruples of justice and fair play that to argue the question at greater length would be superfluous. The idea of even authorizing parol evidence to show justification for such release as we have in this case is to me unthinkable. What the law says is not palatable cannot be made so by parol evidence.
If the evidence is conflicting, under the majority ruling, the claims of the appellants could still be defeated by a result which is against public policy and without consideration. The only burden the appellants have is to show that the amount received from the original tortfeasor did not completely and fully compensate for the total injuries suffered.
Going back to my Division 1 with reference to consideration in a third-party beneficiary contract, it has been suggested that what I have said about consideration in such a case is wide of my mark "for the reason that nothing prohibited a man from promising a large sum to the first man who reached the moon.” Such a promise would not have to be performed unless the promisor gratuitously donated the money to such a man after his identity was discovered, or the third-party beneficiary knew about the promise, accepted the offer and went to the moon after accepting the offer made him. If he never did know of such an offer before his trip but only heard about it upon his return to earth he could not prevail in a complaint to recover the gratuity because the offeror could defend upon the ground of lack of consideration. One cannot be liable for the failure to keep a promise to make a gift unless the promise is based on a valuable consideration.
It would seem that courts in the past have construed re*460leases as releasing every possible one who could be fished into responsibility, under a rule called the "unity of release rule.” With that idea in mind, it seems that the courts in the cases hereinafter cited changed their states’ laws because of the unfavorable opinion of what they had been doing and held exactly what the majority now holds (except as to the parol evidence as to the intention in the release). The cases below hold that the release does not cover the treating physician’s tort after the original tort in the causing of the collision. Derby v. Prewitt, 12 N. Y. 2d 100 (187 NE2d 556); Young v. State, 455 P. 2d 889 (Alaska 1969); McMillen v. Klingensmith, 467 S. W. 2d 193 (Texas 1971); and see 30 NACCA L. J. 156-161 (1964) and cit.
Undercofler, Justice, dissenting. In my opinion the majority has misconstrued the minority rule concerning the effect of a general release. As stated in 39 ALR3rd 260, 264, "Thus, a sizable number of courts now support a modern rule that a release by an injured party of the one responsible for the injury does not of itself, in the absence of language indicative of such an intention on the part of the parties, preclude an action by the injured party against the negligently treating physician or surgeon, at least unless there has been full compensation for the injured party’s total injuries.” (Emphasis supplied). In the instant case the intention of the parties is clear. The contract shows their intention to release "all other persons, firms or corporations liable or who might be claimed to be liable ... on account of all injuries, known and unknown, . . . which have resulted or may in the future develop from an accident which occurred on . . . for the purpose of making a full and final compromise and adjustment and settlement of any and all claims, disputed or otherwise, on account of injuries and damages above mentioned, and for the express purpose of precluding forever any further or additional claims arising out of the aforesaid accident.”
The release permits no conclusion other than that the plaintiff intended to release the defendant physician.
Furthermore, Derby v. Prewitt, 12 N. Y. 2d 100 (236 *461NYS2d 953, 187 NE2d 656), (3 judges dissenting) relied upon by the majority is not authority for their conclusion since it appears that only the original wrongdoer was released in that case. There was no language indicative of an intention to release others. The limited holding of Derby v. Prewitt, supra, was demonstrated three months later in Oxford Commercial Corp. v. Landau, 12 N. Y. 2d 362 (239 NYS2d 865, 190 NE2d 230), when the entire court held that a release of "'any person whomsoever’ except those specifically named is too clear and precise to admit of evidence that the parties intended to exclude the defendants from this all-inclusive category.”
I am authorized to state that Justice Grice concurs in this dissent.