Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Peterson

• Decision Date: 02 November 1928
• Docket Number: Civil 2714
• Citation: 34 Ariz. 292,271 P. 406
• Parties: THE ATCHISON, TOPEKA AND SANTA FE RAILWAY COMPANY, a Corporation, Appellant, v. C. I. PETERSON, Appellee
• Court: Arizona Supreme Court

271 P. 406

34 Ariz. 292

THE ATCHISON, TOPEKA AND SANTA FE RAILWAY COMPANY, a Corporation, Appellant, v. C. I. PETERSON, Appellee

Civil No. 2714

Supreme Court of Arizona

November 2, 1928

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of the County of Navajo. J. E. Crosby, Judge. Judgment affirmed.

Messrs Chalmers, Fennemore & Nairn, Mr. C. B. Wilson, Mr. E. W. Camp and Mr. Robert Brennan, for Appellant.

Mr. W E. Ferguson and Mr. P. A. Sawyer, for Appellee.

OPINION

McALISTER, J.

This is an appeal by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company from a judgment in favor of C. I. Peterson for damages for personal injuries received by him while in the discharge of his duties as an employee of that company.

The injury was received February 5, 1924, and on March 25th thereafter Peterson signed a written document in which, for a consideration of $1,000, he released and discharged the railway company from all claims he then had or might thereafter have as a result of the injuries sustained by him at that time. As presented here, the case does not contest the fact of injury, nor the resultant right to damages, but raises the one question whether the release is valid, and therefore a bar to the cause of action. The position of appellee is that the release is null and void and the reasons assigned are that his signature was obtained to it through false and fraudulent representations, made to him by the doctors and claim agents of the railway company, as to his physical condition, and that he was not mentally competent to contract with the company or anyone else concerning the satisfaction of his claim at the time he signed it. The position of appellant, upon the other hand, is that the release is valid, and consequently bars the cause of action, because appellee executed it without misrepresentation of any character on the part of the company's agents, was mentally competent to contract, and fully understood the purport of his act in attaching his signature.

The injury was received in this way: As the westbound freight upon which appellee was a brakeman passed through Flagstaff, Arizona, about one o'clock in the morning, he was sitting in the cupola of the caboose, his head and shoulders out of the window, so he could better observe the train and the order board for signals, and, as the caboose was about one hundred and fifty or two hundred feet west of the depot, he was struck in the upper right temple and knocked unconscious by a water-crane, which the company maintained between the two main tracks, and which at the time was so out of repair that it swung nearly three feet out of position and within about four inches of a train passing over the south main track. Within a few minutes after it occurred, Harry Carter, another trainman in the caboose, discovered it and immediately took appellee from the cupola and placed him on a bunk, in which position he was carried on to Williams, where he was removed to the Harvey House and attended by Dr. Melich, the railway physician at that place, until a little past noon of that day, when he was put on a passenger train and taken back to Winslow.

Upon the advice of Dr. Brown, the company physician there, he was taken the following day to the hospital of the Santa Fe Coast Lines Association in Los Angeles, where he remained ten days or two weeks under the care principally of Dr. A. Tyroler, assistant surgeon at that hospital, and chief surgeon for the Santa Fe Railway Company. At the end of this period, acting upon the advice of the latter that he would be all right in a short time, he returned to Winslow, but after being there about two weeks was advised by Dr. Brown to return to Los Angeles for further treatment, and he did so immediately, Mrs. Peterson accompanying him. Upon arriving there Dr. Tyroler examined him again, and immediately afterwards sent him to Dr. Rand, a brain specialist, for further examination. Two days later Mrs. Peterson and he called at Dr. Tyroler's office to learn Dr. Rand's findings as to his condition (the latter having told them he would report to the former), and were told by Dr. Tyroler that there was nothing seriously wrong, and that he would be all right in thirty days.

From there they went to the office of the general claim agent of the Santa Fe Company, having promised the adjuster at Winslow, Mr. Anderson, that he would do this while in Los Angeles, and was invited into the office of E. C. Brun, senior claim adjuster, his wife remaining in the reception-room. They discussed the matter of a settlement for nearly an hour, after which they entered the office of the chief claim adjuster, F. A. Kelly, and talked with him for some minutes, when Mrs. Peterson was called in and the release executed by appellee under date of March 25, 1924, a draft for $1,000 being delivered to him at the same time. The execution of the release was witnessed by Mrs. Peterson, E. C. Brun, and F. A. Kelly, and in its body in appellee's handwriting appear these words:

"I have read the above voucher, receipt and release, and fully understand the same."

Brun and Kelly testified that appellee knew fully what he was doing, and dickered with them for the best settlement he could obtain, the former suggesting to him that he had told the claim agent in Winslow, Mr. Anderson, that he would settle for $500, but he insisted on $1,000, for the reason that, though advised by the doctor that he could return to work in thirty days, it was problematical whether he would be able to do so, and, if he were, it might be necessary for him to take light work. Finally it was agreed that this amount should be paid.

According to the testimony of appellee, the settlement was made and the release executed because he believed at the time that he would be all right in thirty days, and this belief was produced principally by the statement of Dr. Tyroler that he would be, and to some extent by his own feeling that he was getting along very well. He testified:

"After I had been examined by the brain specialist I had to report to Dr. Tyroler to get the findings of the brain specialist. I did report to him and he instructed me that they found nothing wrong with me and all I needed was to take a vacation as I stated before. He stated that I would be over my injury in a short while; that they found nothing wrong and all I needed was to get my mind off of it. I was released to go to work in thirty days. I did not go to work. . . . I believed Dr. Tyroler's statement that I would be all right within thirty days. When I left Dr. Tyroler's office I went to see the claim agent. . . . I did not ask Dr. Tyroler to let me examine the report [of the brain specialist]. I did not read it over at any time. I was depending upon my own feelings to a certain extent. I thought I was getting along very well."

Mrs. Peterson testified:

"When we left Dr. Tyroler's office, we started to leave the building and Mr. Peterson said, 'I promised Mr. Anderson to stop in the claim agent's office.' When I asked [Dr. Tyroler] about his condition he advised us to take a vacation and I asked about C.I.'s condition. Told him I was worried, and he said it was all unnecessary worry on my part. That from the examination made and different things he had found he thought C.I. would be all right in thirty days, but he advised a vacation if we had any one to visit in the East. I told him he was not himself and had not been since the injury, and he said, 'What do you mean?' and I said, 'I don't know how else to describe it,' and he said, 'It is all unnecessary worry on your part. He will be all right in thirty days.' From Dr. Tyroler's office I went to the anteroom of the claim agent's office. Mr. Peterson was with me."

That both Dr. Tyroler and appellee were mistaken as to his condition is clear from the evidence, which discloses that he was not all right within thirty days, nor even within the period elapsing between then and the trial, which was about three years later. In fact, it was admitted at the oral argument that he was in worse condition at the time the release was executed than he himself or the doctor thought he was, and in order that the correctness of this may appear a brief statement of the facts relating thereto from almost immediately thereafter until the trial follows:

Upon giving the release, he returned to his home in Winslow, and was there only a few days before his condition, both mental and physical, became such that Dr. Brown advised that he be taken away for a while. Pursuant to this advice, Mrs Peterson took him to St. Louis early in April to visit a sister, and he returned from there the latter part of June, and within a few days went to the hospital in Los Angeles to ascertain whether his condition would permit him to return to work, the result being that he was told by the doctor it would. Hence, about the middle of July he took a place as head-end brakeman on a passenger train, which was considered light work, but by the latter part of the following January his condition had become such that it was advisable that he make a fourth visit to the hospital for examination, and was advised this time by its physicians to go to a low altitude and follow light work involving no responsibility. Instead, however, he continued as brakeman for a few weeks, or until the 23d or 24th of February, 1925, when he was compelled to quit, and, accompanied by Mrs. Peterson, left immediately for the Mayo Clinic at Rochester, Minnesota, where he remained about a week, after which he and his wife went to Oklahoma City, where his parents resided. Mrs. Peterson remained there with him until some time in April, when she returned to Winslow, leaving him with his parents because, she testified, "neither the children nor I could be...