Van Avery v. Seiter

163 N.W.2d 643, 13 Mich. App. 88
CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 12, 1968
DocketDocket 3,911
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 163 N.W.2d 643 (Van Avery v. Seiter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Van Avery v. Seiter, 163 N.W.2d 643, 13 Mich. App. 88 (Mich. Ct. App. 1968).

Opinions

Ziem, J.

On January 20, 1961, plaintiff Van Avery, employee of a construction company, was operating an earth mover which was crossing a highway. A collision occurred with the defendant Seiter’s truck which was being driven by the defendant McPhall. Plaintiff claims that a flagman employed by the construction company had a stop sign on the highway directing traffic to ■ stop so that the earth mover could proceed across the highway. The defendant driver denied that the flagman [90]*90had indicated for him to stop. As a result there was a collision and plaintiff was injured. Plaintiff suffered known injuries to his elbows. On March 9, 1961, one day after plaintiff was informed by his physician that he could return to his employment, a settlement was reached between plaintiff and the defendant Auto-Owners Insurance Company on behalf of their insureds for the sum of $1,050, which covered medical expenses, actual lost wages, and $300 for pain and suffering.

Plaintiff returned to work until the latter part of 1961, when severe headaches caused him to be unable to continue his job. He has not -worked since that time.

The plaintiff filed a negligence action against the Seiter brothers and their driver. The executed release and settlement of the claim was raised as a defense. Plaintiff then filed this action in equity, joining Auto-Owners Insurance Company as a defendant, seeking to enjoin the assertion of the release as a defense because a mutual mistake of a material fact existed at the time of the release. The trial court refused to set aside the release and dismissed the complaint.

The trial court made several findings in his opinion as follows:

“Now so as to make it clear, there is no question in the court’s mind that at the time that this settlement was made by plaintiff and his wife and the defendant insurance company, there was no knowledge on the part of either party nor the plaintiff’s doctor that there was any head injury to plaintiff. There is nothing on the record to indicate that this was talked about nor even thought about by any of the parties * * * . The court notes in reading the Hall v. Strom Construction Company case, 368 Mich 253, 260, 261, Justice Black is very much concerned with haste and nominal payment, and also at the [91]*91bottom of p 261 mentions that in that ease, the liability of defendant Strom appears to be clear. Snch is not so in the case at bar.
“In the case at bar there is no indication by the plaintiff that he was hurried or ‘hounded’ by the defendant insurance company adjuster to settle this matter and in the court’s opinion the sum of $1,050 is not a nominal sum under the circumstances. The court also wishes to point out in plaintiff’s deposition from p 54 through p 63 which concerns the matter of the settlement and release itself, that it appears the negotiations were above board and that the plaintiff was entirely satisfied with the settlement. And it further appears in these same pages of plaintiff’s deposition that he knew that the release covered anything that might happen to him in the future that might be related to this accident. The court feels that even though none of the parties knew or had reason to know of the injury about which plaintiff now complains, that there was no haste or pressure put on the plaintiff by defendant insurance company adjuster and that looking at the facts that were known at the time that the release was signed, that the consideration paid was adequate under the circumstances and was not such that would shock the conscience of the court. Plaintiff’s complaint will be dismissed.”

The plaintiff appeals and asserts that the law on the issue of mutual mistake in releases was well settled in Hall v. Strom Construction Company (1962), 368 Mich 253, and Ryan v. Alexy (1964), 373 Mich 50, and that the facts in the present case as determined by the trial court are clearly within the scope of this doctrine. Plaintiff asserts that the conclusion of the trial court in its application of law to the facts was in error.

Each side relies on the same cases and treatises, to wit: Denton v. Utley (1957), 350 Mich 332; Hall v. Strom Construction Company, supra; Ryan v. [92]*92Alexy, supra; 71 ALR2d 87; and Williston on Contracts, § 1551. This case presents facts upon which reasonable minds could well differ as to the proper application of the rules set forth in the foregoing authorities as they concern this factual situation.

There are many statements in the cited authorities which, standing by themselves, tend to support the plaintiff’s position. For example, Justice Talbot Smith in Denton, supra, (pp 343, 344) said:

“The cases put it very simply, and without dependence or reliance upon the language employed in the release form thereof: A releasor who believes he is without personal injuries, or that he has certain minor injuries only, and who, secure in his belief, executes a general release, will not be bound by it if other and more serious injuries are discovered later.”

This principle standing alone would dictate reversal of this case as would the following in Hall, supra, where Justice Black said (p 258):

“To make the rule pinpoint plain, we construe it as applicable where the releasor’s proof persuasively shows a fair and mutual want of knowledge of a hidden injury which eventually comes to consequential light, distinguished from a then want of knowledge of unexpected adverse consequences of a known yet apparently negligible injury. Here, by all fair intendment, Mr. Hall and the adjuster knew that Mr. Hall had been struck injuriously on the head and back. They did not know of the simultaneous internal injury, that is the brain injury which upon present assumption was serious enough to cause the epileptic seizures Mr. Hall experienced later. The rule therefore applies.”

However, as is true in the study of all cases, but even more so in the cases here cited as authority, these cases must be read in their entirety to get [93]*93the full import of their meaning. For example in Denton (pp 332, 333) Justice Talbot Smith wrote:

“This case must he read with great care. We are upsetting the particular release here involved. We are not saying that all releases are vulnerable. What we are saying is that releases have no particular immunity of their own to attack on the grounds of mistake or fraud. There is no form of words, there is no formula, no instrument, no transaction that rises above the chancellor’s scrutiny or resists his intervention.” (Emphasis added.)

At p 342 he wrote:

“To put it affirmatively, any release, to be sustained must be ‘fairly and knowingly’ made.”

And in Hall (p 254), Justice Black indicated that what was being written must be limited to the “precisionally assembled facts.” Further (p 258), he stated:

“The essence of such authorities is that relief is available to the releasor when he is able to plead and prove that the injury — to which the symptoms of delayed disease or disability is provably attributable — was mutually unknown when the release he would avoid was signed in return for a nominal consideration.” (Emphasis added.)

In addition, in Hall,

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Related

Stefanac v. Cranbrook Educational Community
458 N.W.2d 56 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1990)
Grzebik v. Kerr
283 N.W.2d 654 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1979)
Van Avery v. Seiter
175 N.W.2d 744 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1970)
Van Avery v. Seiter
163 N.W.2d 643 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1968)

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Bluebook (online)
163 N.W.2d 643, 13 Mich. App. 88, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/van-avery-v-seiter-michctapp-1968.