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728 P.2d 999

45 UtahAdv.Rep. 29

Simonson v. Travis

Utah Supreme Court

Decided November 6, 1986

Utah Supreme Court · decided 1986-11-06

Relies on Scharf v. BMG Corp. · Armijo v. Foundation Reserve Insurance Company · 8 Utah 2d 183 - Maxfield v. Denver and Rio Grande Western R. Co.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1986-11-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently June 2004

2 federal appellate · 1 district · 6 state decisions

50198619902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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ZIMMERMAN, Justice

¶1(dissenting):

¶2I cannot join the majority. In reversing the trial court's finding that plaintiff has *1003not carried her burden of showing the release to be invalid, the Court has exceeded its proper function. I, too, have sympathy for plaintiff. However, where there is conflicting evidence and the trial court has resolved it against a party, it is not for us to redetermine the matter unless there is no substantial record evidence to support the findings. Scharf v. BMG Corp., 700 P.2d 1068, 1070 (Utah 1985); Sharpe v. American Medical Systems, Inc., 671 P.2d 185, 187 (Utah 1983); Kohler v. Garden City, 639 P.2d 162, 165 (Utah 1981); Thurman v. Byram, 626 P.2d 447, 448-49 (Utah 1981); Knight v. Leigh, 619 P.2d 1385, 1387 (Utah 1980).

¶3Here, the release was ambiguous and, therefore, parol evidence was properly considered in determining the intent of the parties. Cf. Armijo v. Foundation Reserve Insurance Co., 75 N.M. 592, 595, 408 P.2d 750, 752 (1965). Ambiguity, however, does not equate with invalidity. After demonstrating ambiguity, the burden was still on plaintiff to show by clear and convincing evidence that the release was invalid. Maxfield v. Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, 8 Utah 2d 183, 185, 330 P.2d 1018, 1019 (1958). There is ample record evidence to support the trial court’s finding that plaintiff did not carry this burden. Therefore, I would affirm.

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