Kelly v. R.S. Jones and Associates, Inc.

In this consolidated appeal we consider whether release agreements, executed incident to a wrongful death claim arising from an airplane crash, constitute an accord and satisfaction barring the subsequent assertion of a wrongful death claim.

On October 12, 1987, Judy Phipps Jones died when the airplane in which she was a passenger crashed in Pompano Beach, Florida. On November 9, 1989, Christina Phipps, the only child of Judy Jones, filed a motion to intervene and vacate an order issued by the Circuit Court of Wise County on February 17, 1988. That order approved a settlement in which William…