Cases—Duress—”I didn’t get you into this mess”

A homeowner who had signed a release of his disputes with a contractor could not get out of it on grounds of economic duress, according to the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals.  The owner was under a good deal of economic stress and needed to get the final sign-off on the project quickly, wrote Judge Thompson for the majority, but it was not the contractor’s fault.  “Economic duress,” he wrote, “must be based on conduct of the opposite party and not merely on the necessities of the purported victim.”  A motion to dismiss on that claim was properly granted. Judge Murdock, in dissent, thought the owner had raised enough evidence surrounding the release to raise an issue of fact.  Anderson v. Amberson, 2004 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 737 (Ala. Ct. Civ. App. Oct. 1, 2004)