Chouinard v. Chouinard

After Fred Chouinard's company ran short of money due to his own bad business deal and unpaid customer bills, a refinancing lender required Fred to settle his father Al's and brother Ed's (defendants) longstanding ownership claims in the company; Al and Ed offered to release those claims only if Fred and his wife Ginger (plaintiffs) signed agreements to pay $190,000, an amount Fred considered excessive but signed anyway seeing no alternative. Fred and Ginger made installment payments for about a year before suing to void the agreements as products of economic duress; a jury found they'd waived the duress claim through their voluntary payments, and the district court entered judgment for Al and Ed, prompting Fred and Ginger's appeal.