## Facts

- Melvin Parrent was an underage teenager employed by Midway Toyota, Inc. in Great Falls, Montana.
- On August 18, 1975, when Parrent was 15 years old, he injured his lower back while lifting heavy items at work.
- Midway accepted the workers’ compensation claim and paid temporary total disability benefits (reported as paid for a period following the injury, including through November 15, 1976).
- Medical evaluation revealed a herniated disk at the L4–L5 level; Parrent underwent surgery to remove the disk and had a posterolateral fusion from L5 to the sacrum.
- In February 1977, while Parrent was still a minor, Parrent and Midway resolved the claim through a “petition for final settlement” providing permanent partial disability benefits (described as 150 weeks totaling $6,136.40, with credit for amounts already paid).
- Midway negotiated through a claims adjuster, Tom Mazurek, who met with Parrent and Parrent’s mother, Hermione Parrent, during settlement discussions.
- Parrent signed the settlement petition himself; his mother was present and did not object, but she did not sign, and no other adult or legal representative signed for Parrent.
- Parrent later petitioned the Workers’ Compensation Court to reopen the claim. The Workers’ Compensation Court found no post-settlement change in Parrent’s condition and no wrongdoing in obtaining the settlement, treated the mother’s participation and presence as equivalent to her signature, and denied reopening.
- Parrent appealed to the Montana Supreme Court.

## Issues

1. Whether the Workers’ Compensation Court erred by refusing to allow a minor claimant to disaffirm a workers’ compensation petition for final settlement that the minor alone signed and to reopen the claim.

## Decision

- The Montana Supreme Court reversed the Workers’ Compensation Court.
- The Court held that Parrent, as a minor and the only signatory to the final settlement contract, could disaffirm the settlement.
- The Court rejected the view that the mother’s participation in negotiations and her presence at signing had the same legal effect as a binding adult signature or authorized legal consent.
- The Court ruled that the absence of increased disability or evidence of fraud did not defeat a minor’s right to disaffirm a settlement entered while still underage.
- The case was remanded to the Workers’ Compensation Court for further proceedings consistent with the Supreme Court’s ruling.

## Legal Principles

- A minor’s contract is generally voidable at the minor’s election unless a statute clearly removes that protection.
- A workers’ compensation compromise settlement is treated as contractual in nature; ordinary rules on a minor’s capacity apply unless displaced by clear legislative direction.
- A parent’s role as a natural guardian does not, by itself, give authority to bind the minor to a settlement agreement without formal, legally effective assent or authorization.
- A minor’s right to disaffirm is not conditioned on proving increased disability, fraud, or other post-settlement change; the protection arises from the claimant’s status as a minor at the time of contracting.
- When an adult party enters a settlement with a minor and obtains only the minor’s signature, the adult bears the risk that the minor may later avoid the agreement.

## Conclusion

The Montana Supreme Court held that Parrent’s workers’ compensation final settlement, signed only by Parrent while he was a minor, was voidable at his election; his mother’s participation and presence at signing did not bind him, and the claim could be reopened on disaffirmance even without proof of increased disability or fraud, so the case was reversed and remanded for further proceedings.


Parrent v. Midway Toyota, 626 P.2d 848 (1981)