A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which if known by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor.
S.D. Codified Laws § 20-7-11
Unknown claims not released by general release
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Fenske Media Corp. v. Banta Corp. (2004)
Most recently applied in Schaefer v. Sioux Spine & Sport, Prof. LLC (January 2018)
Source: CivC 1877, § 868; CL 1887, § 3492; RCivC 1903, § 1186; RC 1919, § 793; SDC 1939, § 47.0241.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.