Settlement Agreements: On the Other Hand…

I just blogged about a settlement agreement that the court found unenforceable because there was no meeting of the minds. As always, these cases revolve around the particular circumstances, as an opposite conclusion in a recent case out of the Eastern District of Tennessee, Hira v. New York Life Insurance Company, No. 3:13-cv-527 (behind paywall), illustrates.

In that case, the attorneys had agreed on the basic terms of the settlement (money in exchange for a release and waiver). Defendant’s counsel sent a draft agreement to plaintiffs’ counsel, and over the next few months counsel continued to correspond about the agreement. Eventually, plaintiffs’ counsel informed defendant’s counsel that one of the plaintiffs had traveled to India, fallen “gravely ill,” was in no state to sign any settlement agreement, and had left no power of attorney to permit anyone else to sign the settlement agreement on his behalf. Defendant asked the court to enforce the settlement agreement, notwithstanding plaintiff’s lack of signature. 

And the court agreed. It found that there was no dispute regarding the settlement agreement and it did not matter that plaintiff had never signed the draft document. Therefore, the court ordered that the settlement agreement be enforced.