Luigi Bafico v. Southern Pacific Company

This action arises under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, 45 U.S.C. §§ 51-60 . Bafico, plaintiff below and appellant here, was employed by appellee in its Brooklyn Yards, Portland, Oregon, as a section worker maintaining appellee’s right of way. Appellee usually dispatched section gangs to the section of track assigned to them in a vehicle provided by appellee and driven by one of its employees. On June 11, 1962, in alleged violation of the “work and safety rules” requiring this practice, Bafico’s superior directed him to drive to his assigned section of track in his own vehicle. As Bafico was leaving Brooklyn Yards, a truck owned by Dad’s Root Beer Bottling Company of Portland proceeded through a stop light and struck his automobile, demolishing it and causing the injuries which resulted in his total and permanent disability.

Bafico first brought suit against Dad’s Root Beer in an Oregon state court. That action was settled for $16,500 on the morning set for trial. In return for the settlement payment, Bafico executed a “standard form” release, in the office of his own attorney and in the absence of the attorney for Dad’s Root Beer, which reads in pertinent part as…