Wilson

Defendant appeals from a judgment after ' verdict in an action for damages arising out of the admittedly negligent shooting of plaintiff by defendant. The defense was a pleaded satisfaction and release, and this defense was good unless the evidence of plaintiff was sufficient to show that the release had been obtained by fraudulent means. We have to determine whether the evidence was sufficient to support the jury’s implied finding of fraud, as a result of which the release was held to be invalid.

Plaintiff and defendant were physicians; they had been close friends for many years, intimately associated in social activities and in their professional work, but not in other business matters. With their wives they frequently stayed at each other’s houses and were in each other’s company a great deal of the time. This long-continued friendship was not breached by the shooting of the plaintiff. When plaintiff left the hospital where he was confined for a number of weeks after a serious operation, he and his wife were taken into the home of the defendant where they lived for four or five months. During that time plaintiff received from defendant as compensation for his injuries a…