165 F. 342 | 8th Cir. | 1908
W. F. Bridges was the holder of a beneficiary certificate issued by the Sovereign Camp, Woodmen of the
The larv is well settled. The general rule is that where a liquidated sum is due, and there is no consideration for the surrender of a part of it, the payment of a less sum, though accepted in satisfaction, is not binding. But efforts to avoid litigation by amicable arrangement of those interested are regarded by the courts with such favor that it is held the rule should be confined to cases strictly within it (Railway v. Clark, 178 U. S. 353, 365, 20 Sup. Ct. 924, 44 L. Ed. 1099), and a payment of a part will extinguish the whole if there be in the transaction an element recognized by the parties as the moving cause and which in the law of contract is regarded as consideration. The adjustment of a bona fide dispute as to the existence of conditions upon which it was agreed that a sum certain should or should not be owing is a sufficient consideration, and a compromise and settlement accordingly made will not thereafter be disturbed by an inquiry into the truth of the matter disputed.
But it is charged by Mrs. Bridges that she was influenced and persuaded by false and fraudulent representations. The evidence, however, wholly fails to sustain the charge. The entire transaction resulting in the agreement of compromise and settlement, and all of the representations made to her by the adjuster, were in the presence of her brother, who was a member of the bar, and who' had requested her to come to his office with the certificate and other papers. The adjuster there told her he had made an investigation and was of the opinion, or under the impression, or was convinced, as she variously expressed it, her husband had committed suicide. The provision of the certificate upon that subject was correctly explained to her. There was no misrepresentation of any fact or of the effect of the instrument upon which her rights depended. At the trial of the case there was no evidence that fairly tended to prove there was not a dispute in good faith as to the character of the act that caused her husband’s death. Moreover, Mrs. Bridges was in a better position than the adjuster to judge whether the acid was drunk accidentally or with suicidal intent, for she was present when it occurred and knew the attendant circumstances. Her brother, who was a witness at the trial, admitted that at the time of the compromise he himself thought it was a case of suicide though he knew nothing of the actual fact, and said that for that reason lie believed the compromise was a good one. It is true that, after much leading by her counsel, Mrs. Bridges was finally brought to the statement that the impression made on her mind by the adjuster was that there was no liability whether the acid was taken
The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded for a new trial.