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

Citations

• 67 Kan. 386
• 73 P. 113
• 1903 Kan. LEXIS 263

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Contract — Release of Claim for Damages, A person who, without reading it, signs a written contract releasing his right to maintain an action for damages resulting from an injury occasioned by the negligence of his former employer will be held to have executed the instrument with full knowledge of its contents, when his only excuse for not reading it was that he was “somewhat hurried.”</p> <p>2. -Allusions to Future Employment. Such a contract cannot be avoided by the party signing it because he relied upon-“allusions to future employment” made by the agent of his former employer in the negotiations consummated by the written release, which employment was not furnished him.</p> <p>3. -Parol Proof Inadmissible. Such a contract, made without fraud in its execution, full and complete in its terms, unambiguous, reasonable, and plain, but containing no agreement for the future employment of the releasor, cannot be supplemented by parol proof of such an agreement, claimed to have been made in the negotiations concluded by the release, even though it be asserted that such agreement was the inducement for making the release.</p>