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Matter of Estates of Woodty9/7/1993
he heater manufacturer or any other non-party at fault. Originally, the children's conservators petitioned the superior court to approve their settlement and releases with "CIGNA Property and Casualty Companies, the insurer of Weston's Lamplighter Motels, Inc. dba Page Boy Motel, and its employees." (Emphasis added). When appellant objected, he argued that the settlement was "woefully inadequate" against Weston's, and none of the counter-presentations to
the trial court ever enlarged that focus. The predrafted releases discharged "WESTON'S LAMPLIGHTER MOTELS, INC., d/b/a PAGE BOY MOTEL, CIGNA PROPERTY & CASUALTY COMPANIES, their heirs, executors, administrators, insurers, indemnitors, sureties and assigns, including employees, representatives and agents . . . ." The court's reference to "and others," when taken in appropriate context, referred to this limited constellation -- that is, Weston's employees, insurers, indemnitors, et al.
Conclusion
In the reformation proceedings, Weston's focused only on the question of the intent of the settling parties; it neglected to demonstrate whether the settlement was not only reasonable to discharge the negligence claim against Weston's, but reasonable to discharge a product liability claim against the Carrier Corporation as well. We have examined and rejected Weston's argument that such a showing was made at the initial hearing. To the contrary, we conclude that the initial hearing covered only the adequacy of the settlement to resolve a claim against Weston's itself. Because the trial court has therefore never passed on the reasonableness of the settlement to discharge the claim against Carrier Corporation, we set aside the reformation order and remand for proceedings consistent with this decision.
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