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470 HIGH COURT OF CHANCERY. RICHARD W. GILL AND HENRIETTA M. HALL, ADMR'S OF SOMERVILLE PINKNEY, SEFTEMBER TERM, 1847. vs. WILLIAM D. CLAGETT. [MISTAKE.] IF parties come to a settlement upon terms mutually agreed upon, and error or mistake occur in the settlement, a court of equity will rectify it and make it conform to the intention of the parties. Equity will, upon sufficient parol proof, reform a contract or settlement in wri- ting upon the ground of mistake, and then enforce its executions as thus re- formed, though the answer denies the mistake. But strong proof must be adduced to overrule the answer denying the mistake. [The facts of this case are sufficiently stated in the following opinion of the Chancellor, delivered on the 5th of November, 1847, and in 2 Md. Oh. Decisions, 151, and ante, 153, where other opinions in the same case are reported.] THE CHANCELLOR : This case is submitted to the court upon written arguments by the solicitors of the parties. It is conceded, indeed it could not be denied, that courts of equity have jurisdiction in cases of mistake, and it is equally well settled, that if parties come to a settlement upon terms mutually agreed upon, and error or mistake occur in the settle- ment, a court of equity will entertain a bill to rectify the set- tlement and make it conform to the intention of the parties. It was at one time much doubted whether it was competent for a plaintiff who sought the specific performance of an agree- ment in writing to vary it by parol proof upon the ground of mistake, and. then after having it thus corrected to insist upon its execution, and this right of a plaintiff was especially questioned when the answer of the defendant denied the mistake. These doubts, however, have been removed by the decision of Chan- cellor Kent, in the case of Gillespie vs. Moon, 2 Johns. Oh. Rep., 585, and by the Court of Appeals, in the case of Moale |
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Reports of Cases in the High Court of Chancery of Maryland 1846-1854
| Volume 200, Volume 4, Page 470 View pdf image (33K) |
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