Mutual Release

mutual release 2At the end of each court case, the lawyers generally have each party sign a Mutual release that in layman’s terms means they will never sue each other for the same matter again, it being a final settlement.

The mutual release signed by the parties as part of their all-inclusive settlement of the prolonged estate litigation is a valid contract.

Accordingly, like any other contract, the parties are bound by the terms to which they have agreed.

A valid mutual release typically releases the other parties to the agreement from any subsequent claims related to the claims that have been released in exchange for valuable consideration.

Such releases are executed by the parties when litigation claims are settled in order to give the parties peace from potential liability from the claims and to avoid any further proceedings that might flow from the claims released.

Such releases operate as a legal bar to the pursuit of any subsequent claim that purports to raise an issue that has already been extinguished by the release.

See: Browne v. McNeilly, [2001] O.J. No. 970 (Ont. S.C.J.), at paras. 9, 13; Sinclair-Cockburn Insurance Brokers Ltd. v. Richards (2002), 61 O.R. (3d) 105, [2002] O.J. No. 3288 (Ont. C.A.), at paras. 14-16; Marjadsingh v. Walia, 2012 ONSC 6659, [2012] O.J. No. 5788 (Ont. S.C.J.), at paras. 16-18.

 

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