Pierringer, Plaintiff v. Hoger and Others, Defendants; Hoger and Another, Plaintiffs, v. Milwaukee Gas Light…

Summary

The court held that releases executed by settling tort-feasors barred the nonsettling tort-feasor's claim for contribution because the releases satisfied the portion of the plaintiff's claim attributable to the settling parties, even though that percentage would be determined later. It further held that the releases were not governed by the Uniform Joint Obligations Act because they clearly expressed the parties' intentions and were inconsistent with that chapter. The court affirmed summary judgment and approved a procedure requiring allocation of all causal negligence and limiting any judgment against the nonsettling defendant to that defendant's allocated percentage.