Clark v. Bullard
| Decision Date | 17 May 1911 |
| Citation | 94 N.E. 1042,208 Mass. 586 |
| Parties | CLARK v. BULLARD et al. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Stebbins, Storer & Burbank, for plaintiff.
Frank H. Noyes, for defendants.
This is an action of tort to recover of the defendants for certain alleged false representations made by them in regard to the nature of the business carried on by the Mutual Stock Company, of which the defendants were officers and agents and thereby inducing the plaintiff to enter into various transactions and dealings with said company to her detriment. There was a verdict for the plaintiff and the case is here on the defendants' exceptions.
The defendants rely on certain releases given by the plaintiff to the Mutual Stock Company, wherein, in consideration of the sums therein recited to have been received by her from the Mutual Stock Company, 'in full for all payments made under any and all contracts and transactions 'closed' to this date,' she releases and discharges 'the said Mutual Stock Company, its principals, stockholders, officers agents and servants, and each of them, therefrom, and also from any and all right of action, claim or demand under or by virtue of chapter 437 of the Acts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the year 1890, or any act amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto, for any pavment or deposit at any time heretofore made either on the within contract or on any other contract or transaction whatsoever, and I covenant never to sue therefor them or either or any of them or on account of any other cause of action, claim or demand whatsoever.'
The action, it is to be observed, is not for any claim or demand arising under and by virtue of St. 1890, c. 437, now R. L. c. 99, or any acts in amendment thereof or supplementary thereto, but for fraudulent representations alleged to have been made by the defendants in regard to the nature of the business carried on by the Mutual Stock Company of which the defendants were and are officers and agents. So much of the releases as relate to such claims or demands was and is therefore manifestly inapplicable to the case before the court.
It is also to be observed that the releases relied on and the covenants not to sue contained therein are contracts not between the plaintiff and defendants but between the plaintiff and the Mutual Stock Company. The defendants are not parties to the contracts contained in the releases or to the covenants not to sue. It is plain, we think, that the defendants could maintain no action against the...
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