Valley v. Boston & M. R. Co.

• Decision Date: 18 October 1907
• Citation: 68 A. 635,103 Me. 106
• Parties: VALLEY v. BOSTON & M. R. CO.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

68 A. 635

103 Me. 106

VALLEY

v. BOSTON & M. R. CO.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Oct. 18, 1907.

Action by Abner D. Valley against the Boston & Maine Railroad Company to recover for personal injuries. Verdict for plaintiff. Motion by defendant to set aside sustained.

The accident in which the plaintiff was injured occurred in the Charlestown yard, so called, of the defendant company, in the city of Charlestown, Mass., February 9, 1904. Writ dated August 10, 1905. Plea, the general issue, with brief statement as follows:

"And for brief statement the defendant further says that before the purchase of the writ in the above-entitled action, to wit, on the 9th day of February, 1904, at Boston, Mass., the said plaintiff, by his certain writing of release, by him signed and sealed with his seal and in court reproduced, in consideration of the sum of fifteen dollars ($15) to the plaintiff in hand paid by the Boston & Maine Railroad, receipt whereof was thereby acknowledged, and the further consideration of the payment of the bill of Dr. Sawin, the plaintiff did thereby release and forever discharge said Boston & Maine Railroad, defendant in above-entitled action, its officers, agents, and servants, from any and all actions, causes of action, claims, and demands for, upon, or by reason of any damage, loss, injury, or cost which heretofore had been, or which thereafter might be, sustained by said plaintiff on account of or in consequence of an accident at or near Boston, Mass., on or about February 9, 1904, whereby said plaintiff claimed to be injured on the Eastern Division train; and the defendant avers that the accident therein referred to, and from all consequences of which said plaintiff therein released the defendant, is the same accident complained of in the plaintiff's writ and the sole cause of action in the present suit."

Verdict for plaintiff for $1,416.66. The defendant company then filed a general motion to have the verdict set aside.

The written release given by the plaintiff to the defendant company, mentioned in the defendant company's brief statement, and which was introduced in evidence during the trial and is discussed and considered in the opinion, is in words and figures as follows:

"Boston & Maine Railroad.

"$15.00. I, Abner Valley, of Fort Fairfield, Maine, in consideration of the sum of fifteen and no/100 dollars to me in hand paid by the Boston & Maine Railroad, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, do hereby release and forever discharge said Boston & Maine Railroad, its officers, agents, and servants, from any and all actions, causes of action, claims, and demands for, upon, or by reason of any damage, loss, injury, or cost which heretofore has been or which hereafter may be sustained by me on account of or in consequence of an accident at or near Boston, Mass., on or about Feby. 9, 1904, whereby I was injured while a passenger on a Eastern Div. train. Said railroad agreeing to pay Dr. Sawin.

"I have read the above.

"In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal at Boston, Mass., this 9th day of Feby., nineteen hundred and four. "Abner Valley. [Seal.]" "Signed and sealed in the presence of

"Lydia A. Carleton.

"R. T. Damon."

All the material facts are stated in the opinion.

Argued before EMERY, C. J., and WHITEHOUSE, STROUT, SPEAR, and CORNISH, JJ.

Herbert W. Trafton and Ira G. Hersey, for plaintiff. Albert W. & John B. Madigan and Herbert T. Powers, for defendant.

EMERY, C. J. This was an action to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff from the negligence of the defendant. The verdict was for the plaintiff. On this motion for a new trial the only question is whether the evidence justified the necessary finding that a written release of the cause of action given by the plaintiff to the defendant for the consideration of $15 was obtained by such misrepresentation as amounts to legal fraud.

The plaintiff had charge of some cars loaded with potatoes shipped from Ft. Fairfield. White the train was at rest in the freightyard of the defendant company in Charlestown, Mass., and the plaintiff was lawfully in the caboose car in a standing position, a moving locomotive struck the rear of the train with such force that the plaintiff was thrown violently against a table and then to the floor of the car, to his injury. Getting up, he left the caboose and went along the train to one of his potato cars, into which he was helped and remained from about half past 3 till daylight of a February morning He then went at the suggestion of one of the trainmen to a physician, Dr. Sawin, not in the employ of the defendant company. He walked the distance, being some five or seven minutes' walk. The physicians advised him that a rib was broken on the side and another parted from the backbone, and after putting on the usual bandages advised him to see the claim agent of the company, which he did, going over to his office at the Northern Station in Boston. There is a sharp conflict of testimony as to the conversation in the claim agent's office, which conversation, however, resulted in the plaintiff accepting from the claim agent $15 and a giving in return therefor a written release of all causes of action against the company This written release was prepared by the claim agent upon a printed blank form, and the plaintiff not only signed it, but wrote upon it with his own hand, close under the...