Asare v. Hartford Fire Ins. Co

In Asare v. Hartford Fire Ins. Co. (1991) 1 Cal.App.4th 856, the parties executed a workers compensation release which the defendant claimed barred the plaintiff's discrimination lawsuit. The Asare court stated that the court could consider extrinsic evidence of the intended scope of the release even though the release contained unambiguous general release language. The Asare court further concluded that a workers' compensation release, which stated it released all claims, did not as a matter of law release the plaintiff's discrimination lawsuit since there was evidence that, before the parties signed the release, their attorneys said the release would not affect the pending discrimination lawsuit. This raised a triable issue as to whether the parties intended the release to apply to the discrimination lawsuit. The Asare court concluded there was substantial circumstantial evidence supporting a finding, based on the attorneys' conversation, that the parties intended to limit the release to the plaintiff's workers compensation claims.