Court Opinion

ID: 9641017
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:20:54.793688+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:34.462586
License: Public Domain

GILBERT, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
That the defendant was entitled to an instructed verdict in its favor is, to my mind, unsupported by the record. The plaintiff had in mind no claim for damages for the death of her son. The only request she made of the defendant was that it defray the funeral expenses. She testified that in response thereto the defendant’s agent came and asked for the bills; that she gave him the bills; that he figured up the amount and said, “We will pay that;” that some three hours later he brought a paper for her to sign; that he did not tell her what was in it, nor tell her why she should sign it, but said, when he gave her the check, that he was paying for the funeral expenses. She testified: “When I signed the release, I relied and depended solely upon the statement given me by the man, and believed what he said.”
The reply alleged that the plaintiff was sick, nervous, and distracted from worry on account of the death of her son, and was in no condition to read the paper which she signed, and there was evidence to show that she was at that time in an extremely nervous condition, could hardly speak, was trembling, and seemed to be about to collapse, and that only after several unsuccessful efforts was she able to hold a pen in her hand or subscribe her name. The defendant’s agent testified that she “broke down and cried twice during the time when she attempted to sign the release,” and that “during the time she was signing the paper she seemed to lose all control of herself.”
Applicable to the situation thus presented is the decision in St. Louis, I. M. & S. Ry. Co. v. Phillips, 66 F. 35, 13 C. C. A. 315, where it was held that a peremptory instruction to the jury to return a verdict for the defendant was properly denied, in view of evidence that the plaintiff, at the time when she signed the release, was in a state of mind that rendered her incapable of transacting any important business, or forming or exercising a deliberate or intelligent judgment on any subject. Also Union Pacific Railway Co. v. Harris, 158 U. S. 326, 15 S. Ct. 843, 39 L. Ed. 1003, where the court held that the question whether the release was signed by the plaintiff in ignorance of its contents, at a time when he was under great suffering from his injuries and in a state approaching unconsciousness, caused by his injuries and by the use of morphine, was for the jury under proper instructions from the court.
Again, it is clear that the minds of the contracting parties never met on a settlement of the plaintiff’s claim for damages. The defendant’s agent denied the defendant’s liability for damages, and said that all the plaintiff could get would be the funeral expenses, and he informed her that he was paying the funeral expenses. He thus gave her to understand that the paper which she signed was a receipt for the funeral expenses, and in fact the cheek which he gave her was for the amount of the sum total of those expenses. It is well settled that one who signs a receipt for a payment, which is represented to be in settlement of a specified claim, is not bound by a release therein contained of other claims or demands, notwithstanding that he fails to read the receipt. Gillespie v. Collier, 224 F. 298, 139 C. C. A. 534.
In Connors v. Richards, 230 Mass. 436, 119 N. E. 831, the plaintiff signed without reading a full release of claims for injuries on receipt of $5, which, it was represented to her, was for damage done to her muff. The court held that it was for the jury to say whether the plaintiff signed the writing, relying on misrepresentation that it was a receipt merely for the damage to her property, *27and, if they so found, she was not bound by the release. In Washington R. & E. Co. v. McLean, 40 App. D. C. 465, it was held that the failure of a woman, unversed in business matters, to read before signing a general release of liability for personal injuries, relying upon the statement of an agent that it was a receipt for money paid her for injury to her apparel, will not, as a matter of law, be held to preclude her from maintaining an action for personal injury, and that an actual attempt to defraud, or an intentional misrepresentation, need not be shown. In New Bell Jellico Coal Co. v. Oxendine, 155 Ky. 840, 160 S. W. 737, the plaintiff signed a release and alleged that he was induced to sign it by the false representations of the defendant’s agent that the instrument was a mere receipt for $200, which he was to receive by way of compensation in part for lost time, whereas the instrument was a release of claim for damages for personal injuries. The court held the release assailable for invalidity.
Among the cases in line with the foregoing are St. Louis, I. M. & S. Ry. Co. v. Reilly, 110 Ark. 182, 161 S. W. 1052, where the plaintiff signed a release purporting to be a settlement in full, on the representation of the agent that it was a settlement only of her claim for injuries to her baby and baby buggy; Railway v. Smith, 82 Ark. 105, 100 S. W. 884 where the release covered all of the plaintiff’s claim on .account of injuries, but he testified that the settlement was only of his claim for delay and inconvenience; Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Walck (Tex. Civ. App.) 161 S. W. 902, where the plaintiff signed a release of all damages for personal injuries as against a certain railroad company, and the agent failed to disclose that the instrument released another corporation also liable for the injuries ; and Rocci v. Massachusetts Accident Co., 222 Mass. 336, 110 N. E. 972, Ann. Cas. 1918C, 529, where the court held that the representation that a paper is a receipt, when in truth it is a release, may be said to have been a material false representation.