128 Minn. 440 | Minn. | 1915
This action to recover for personal injuries resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff. Defendant appeals from an order denying his motion in the alternative for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or for a new trial.
Three main questions were argued by counsel. Two of them have been stated; i. e., the question whether plaintiff at the time of his injury was in the employ of defendant or in the employ of an independent contractor, and the question whether there was evidence of negligence. The third question and the one that must be decided in plaintiff’s favor, in order that he may have any standing in the ■case, concerns the validity of the settlement and release. Unless this be set aside, plaintiff is precluded by it, and the other questions become immaterial.
No fraud in the settlement is shown or seriously claimed. The sole ground for avoiding it is the claim that plaintiff was at the time mentally incapable of understanding the transaction, and did not in fact know whát he was doing. We say this advisedly, not overlooking the argument of inadequacy and other considerations. It is very clear that Clinite represented plaintiff and that defendant, so far from making any effort to secure a settlement, insisted that he was not liable at all. lie was only induced to offer the $400 after repeated attempts of Clinite to induce him to pay something. The amount was inadequate, it is true, if the liability was at all clear. But it was very far from clear that plaintiff was in defendant’s employ at all or that there had been any negligence in doing the work. These questions are even now, after exhaustive efforts of counsel, at" least doubtful ones. It is therefore plainly correct to
The inquiry must therefore be directed to the mental condition of plaintiff on July 25, 1910, when the settlement was made and the release executed. We have referred sufficiently to the testimony of Clinite, of defendant and of Cutler. There can be no doubt that their evidence, if true, shows that plaintiff understood exactly what he was doing. Physically he was then in a very serious condition, but this is by no means inconsistent with soundness of mind. On July 25, plaintiff’s temperature was 97-|* in the morning and reached 100 late in the afternoon. He was in bed on the porch of the hospital. The witness McKenna was a patient at the hospital from March to September, 1910, and during most of this time had a bed next to plaintiff’s. He testified to frequent talks with plaintiff, to his reading the papers, discussing the facts in his case, and the settlement made, all in a sane and normal way. Dr. Petit was an interne at the hospital, and was in charge of plaintiff from May 15 to September 15. He saw and talked with him daily. He testified that plaintiff talked fair English, and answered questions intelligently, though he seemed to lack education and appeared to be dull. Dr. Byrnes was an attending surgeon at the hospital, and plaintiff was under his care from July first. He performed an operation on July 18, to which he obtained plaintiff’s consent. He testified that plaintiff did not talle much, was very quiet, appeared not to care whether anything was done for him, but that he was not delirious, apparently understood what was going on around him and answered questions intelligently. Dr. Collins was the superintendent of the hospital; he testified that plaintiff was irrational at times during the winter and spring, but that at other times he was rational and intelligent. This is all of the testimony that relates to plaintiff’s mental condition at or about the date of the settlement, except the evidence of plaintiff himself. We will briefly review his testimony, as manifestly the verdict, if it can be sustained at all, must rest on the testimony of plaintiff himself.
He remembered being taken to the hospital and being placed on the
As we have said, the evidence wholly fails to show fraud. The liability of defendant was very doubtful; the negotiations for a settlement were begun by the attorneys of the plaintiff and the settlement agreed to by the defendant only after their repeated efforts. Under these circumstances mere inadequacy is not a badge of fraud, or alone ground for avoiding the settlement. In each of the cases relied on by plaintiff there was either evidence of fraud or satisfactory proof that the injured person was unable to understand what he was doing. Schus v. Powers-Simpson Co. 85 Minn. 447, 89 N. W. 68, 69 L.R.A. 887; Sundvall v. Interstate Iron Co. 104 Minn. 499, 116 N. W. 1118; Marple v. Minneapolis & St. L. R. Co. 115 Minn. 262, 132 N. W. 333; Petterson v. Butler Bros. 123 Minn. 516, 144 N. W. 407. The case at bar comes within the well understood rale that the testimony must be clear and convincing in order to set aside a written release. The evidence is so far from clear, so unconvincing, so wholly unsatisfactory, that we are obliged to hold that it was error to submit this issue to the jury. Judgment should have been ordered for the defendant. It is manifest that plaintiff can mate no better case, that the evidence can never be more satisfactory. In view of the overwhelming evidence contradicting his claim of not remembering anything pertaining to a settlement and the failure to repudiate it until long after he had learned where the money came from and had spent it, it is a case where the litigation should be ended.
Order reversed and judgment for defendant ordered.