Baab v. Houser

Citations

• 203 Pa. 470
• 53 A. 344
• 1902 Pa. LEXIS 740

Syllabus

<p>Deed — Reformation of deed — Mistake—Equity—Evidence.</p> <p>The jurisdiction of equity to reform a deed which by mistake fails to express the intention of the parties is unquestionable. It is, however-, a power to be exercised with great caution, to avoid infringing upon the statute of frauds, and only in very clear cases, especially where parties are witnesses and the decree must rest even partially on their testimony.</p> <p>A deed will bo reformed so as to make it a conveyance of a fee with a reservation of coal where the evidence for the grantor in an equity suit for information shows that in the deed as executed the word “surface” had been interlined by the scrivener in the presence of the parties at the time of the execution of the deed; that the bargain was for the land excepting the coal; that the deed had not been written as it should have been on a blank containing a reservation of coal; that the word “ surface ” had been interlined with the intention of supplying the omission ; and that the defendant on several occasions had admitted that he had not bought the coal. In such a case the decree of reformation should be made with an express saving of all intervening rights.</p>