Tatman v. Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington Railroad

Citations

• 10 Del. Ch. 105
• 85 A. 716
• 1913 Del. Ch. LEXIS 7

Syllabus

<p>It is the policy of the law to sustain the compromise of disputed claims, and in the absence of fraud or mistake an executed agreement of settlement of an unliquidated claim is as effectual as an estoppel against the parties again litigating it as a final judgment.</p> <p>To invalidate a release because of mutual mistake, it must relate to a past or present fact material to the contract, and not to an opinion as to future conditions.</p> <p>Where a release for personal injuries covers only particular injuries, while there were others unknown to both parties, there is such a mistake of fact as will authorize equitable relief against using the release as a bar to a claim for the unknown injuries, though the specific description was followed by general language.</p> <p>An innocent misrepresentation by defendant’s physician, relied on by both parties, as to the kind of injury received by plaintiff, may avoid the release.</p> <p>A release for personal injuries was of “all claims and demands which we or any of us have or can have” against the railroad company named “for or by reason of any matter or thing whatsoever, and more especially by reason of losses and damage sustained” because of personal injuries, and further recited that the company paid the money in compromise of the claim released, not admitting any liability. When the release was executed, both parties believed that the injury to releasor was only a superficial scratch on the cornea of the eye, relying upon statements by the company’s physician, made in good faith, to that effect, when in fact the injury was from a deep penetration through the eye, including the retina, which afterwards caused loss of sight. Held, that there was a “mistake of fact” as to the extent of the injuries, so that equity would enjoin the use of the release as a bar to an action by releasor for damages for the injuries not known when the release was executed.</p> <p>Where defendant railroad company paid a claim for personal injuri