Court Opinion

ID: 9528239
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:38:39.103874+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:22:04.137999
License: Public Domain

[Memorandum on Petition eor Rehearing].  In a petition for rehearing, defendant makes the point that the court in accepting the explanation of the contract as urged by plaintiff and, as' we thought, supported by the evidence, was in effect reforming the contract, and that this could only have been done on a proper complaint in equity. In a broad sense, whenever a court finds that a document is ambiguous and then determines its true meaning from parol evidence, it is reforming the contract. That is not the kind of reformation which is contemplated when a complaint in equity to reform is deemed essential. "What is there intended is that a term of the contract definitely expressed was the product of mutual mistake or other basis for reformation. Here, as the court found, the contract was ambiguous, and oral evidence was introduced to explain it. With explanation it became clear. Words are only the method of communication. The fact that words are used to make clear the meaning does not mean that a reformation of the contract is necessary to include such words. The contract as it stands with the parol evidence explaining it is sufficient to support plaintiff’s version of the agreement. McCORMICK and DEMPSEY, JJ., concur.