Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Bennett

Citations

• 63 Kan. 781
• 66 P. 1018
• 1901 Kan. LEXIS 228

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Railroads — Injury to Employee — Settlement and Satisfaction — Fraud. More than four months after the plaintiff below had suffered an actionable injury to his person by the negligence of the defendant company, he made full settlement therefor with the latter. He was at the time in full possession of his faculties, and thought, from the favorable progress of his injuries in the past, that he would get well within a limited time. Desiring the ■opinion of a physician on the matter before the settlement was made, he called on a doctor in the employ of the defendant company and asked him what he thought about his final recovery, and was told that he did not think his injury was permanent. He knew of the relation between the doctor and the defendant. It turned out that his injury was permanent, and he afterward sought to set aside the settlement and satisfaction, for fraud. Held, that the evidence of fraud in the case was not sufficient, as matter ■of law, to accomplish this, and that an instruction to the jury to return a verdict for the defendant ought to have been given.</p> <p>2. - Opinion not a Basis for Fraud. The expression of an opinion, honestly entertained, as to a matter wherein opinions may differ, does not afford ground to set aside a settlement and satisfaction on the ground that the same was obtained by fraud p and in this case, held, that the evidence shows that only an opinion was given. <</p>