Rogers v. Piper

543 S.W.2d 261
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 30, 1976
DocketNo. KCD 27324
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 543 S.W.2d 261 (Rogers v. Piper) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rogers v. Piper, 543 S.W.2d 261 (Mo. Ct. App. 1976).

Opinion

TURNAGE, Presiding Judge.

Plaintiff, Champ W. Rogers, filed suit against Drs. Piper, Peril and Garner, and St. Joseph Hospital for alleged negligence in the treatment of injuries Rogers had received in an automobile accident. The court granted a summary judgment on behalf of all defendants on the basis that Rogers had received full satisfaction for all of his injuries from Lemmons, the other party to the accident.

On this appeal Rogers claims: (1) the physicians did not plead the affirmative defense of release; (2) the court erred as a matter of law in granting summary judgment because the modern trend in this type of case is to look to the intention of the parties rather than to the language of the release; and (3) the court erred because there were questions of fact to be litigated. Affirmed.

Rogers filed his suit against the physicians and the hospital alleging negligence in treatment given to him between November 30, 1970, and March 29, 1971. No negligence on the part of any of the defendants was alleged to have occurred after March 29, 1971, nor was any change in Rogers’ condition pleaded to have occurred after March 29, 1971.

In his petition Rogers alleged he had been involved in an automobile accident in the spring of 1970, and the negligence by the defendant physicians and hospital aggravated the injury sustained in such accident.

On January 27,1973, Rogers and his wife executed a release upon payment of the sum of $17,000. Such release stated it was to “RELEASE AND FOREVER DISCHARGE Jack T. Lemmons, his agents and servants, and all other persons, firms and corporations of and from any and all liability, actions, claims, demands or suits whatsoever, which claimants now have or may hereafter have, on account of or arising out of personal injuries or damage to person or property, or impairment of or damage to any right, including loss of time, loss of services of society, and expenses, or other [263]*263damage sustained by or accruing to the undersigned as the result of an accident, casualty or event which occurred on or about the 26th day of June, 1970, at or near 10300 South 71 Highway in Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri.” Such release further stated “that the above mentioned sole consideration is accepted in full compromise, settlement, accord and satisfaction of all the aforesaid claims and demands, including all consequences thereof which may hereafter develop as well as those already developed or now apparent.” The release continued “and it is fully understood and agreed that this agreement is in compromise and settlement of all claims of every kind.”

After the execution of such release, Rogers’ attorney entered into a stipulation for dismissal of Rogers’ suit against Lemmons with prejudice.

In the instant suit the physicians pleaded that Rogers, by a prior action, had received full and complete satisfaction for any and all injuries alleged in his petition. The physicians and the hospital thereafter filed a motion for summary judgment in which it was claimed the court should enter summary judgment because Rogers had received full accord and satisfaction and was thereby barred from any further action. In connection with this motion, request for admissions were filed, to which were attached a copy of the release executed by Rogers and his wife and a copy of the stipulation for dismissal of the suit by Rogers against Lemmons executed by the attorneys in that case. The existence and genuineness of these documents was admitted by Rogers.

Rogers first claims the granting of the motion for summary judgment was erroneous because the physicians had failed to plead the existence of a release. However, the physicians did plead that Rogers had received full satisfaction for his injuries through his settlement with Lemmons. The theory upon which the physicians and the hospital proceeded in their quest for a summary judgment was that Rogers has been fully compensated for all of his injuries, including any injuries he may have received as a result of any negligence on the part of the physicians and the hospital. The release was evidence of the settlement entered into by Rogers and the fact he had received full satisfaction for all of his injuries. The pleaded theory of full satisfaction and the same theory presented in the motion for summary judgment were consistent. All of this was fully before the court in the pleadings and admissions on file which the court is authorized to consider under a motion for summary judgment. Rule 74.04. The theory presented in the motion was pleaded and was, therefore, properly before the court.

Rogers next makes the point the granting of the motion was erroneous as a matter of law. In this point Rogers makes some contention that under Staehlin v. Hochdoerfer, 235 S.W. 1060 (Mo.1921) and Parkell v. Fitzporter, 301 Mo. 217, 256 S.W. 239 (banc 1923) the court should not have granted summary judgment because Rogers still had a cause of action against the physicians and the hospital despite his release of the original tort-feasor. An examination of those cases reveals the court in Parkell found the plaintiff had not received full satisfaction for all of his injuries. In Staehlin the court found from the language of the release a cause of action against the physician had been reserved. Parkell is not applicable if Rogers in fact acknowledged he had received full satisfaction for all of his injuries. Such was the finding by the trial court which was correct. Staehlin is not applicable because the release here did not reserve any cause of action against the physicians or hospital.

It is well established in Missouri that a party may receive full satisfaction for his injuries only once. Hanson v. Norton, 340 Mo. 1012, 103 S.W.2d 1[4] (1937). Thus, if Rogers received full satisfaction from Lem-mons, there remains nothing for him to recover in this case.

The language used in the release executed by Rogers brings this case within the rule announced in McQueen v. Humphrey, 421 S.W.2d 1 (Mo.1967). In that case [264]*264the court held a settlement with the original tort-feasor with nothing in the record to indicate the plaintiff did not consider the settlement as complete satisfaction for her injuries or that she intended to make a claim against anyone else constituted a full satisfaction for all of her injuries. As a result the court held a subsequent suit against physicians who had allegedly negligently treated the plaintiff was barred.

Likewise in this case there is nothing in the record nor in the release executed by Rogers to show that Rogers did not consider the settlement to be full and complete satisfaction for all of his injuries or that he intended to hold anyone else responsible for any injuries he received as a result of the accident with Lemmons.

This court has held in State ex rel. Blond v. Stubbs, 485 S.W.2d 152

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Bluebook (online)
543 S.W.2d 261, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rogers-v-piper-moctapp-1976.