Court Opinion

ID: 9674244
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:25:27.268662+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:26.339275
License: Public Domain

David Newbern, Justice, dissenting. In spite of its seeming recognition that evidence to reform a deed must be clear, convincing, and decisive that there has been either a mutual mistake or a unilateral mistake accompanied by inequitable conduct by the other party, the Court’s opinion ignores the law. It holds that the evidence supports the chancellor’s finding that there was a mutual mistake in omitting the non-recourse provision from the 1988 instruments and upholds the reformation. There is no evidence which supports that conclusion or indeed any conclusion that the Morton’s ever intended this to be a non-recourse transaction. The testimony adduced at trial reveals that the Morton’s were unaware of the meaning of the non-recourse language in the 1978 documents but that they both intended Theis and Smith to be personally liable for the obligation. While this may have supported reformation of the 1978 agreement it has nothing to do with the 1988 contract. The attorney preparing the 1988 documents testified that the omission of the language was an oversight on his part, but such an occurrence presents no evidence of mistake on the part of the Mortons. Both parties in these transactions were represented by counsel at all times in the drafting of these documents, and at most we are presented with a unilateral mistake on the part of Theis and Smith in the signing of the 1988 agreement. There is no evidence of inequitable conduct by the Morton’s which would support a reformation based on unilateral mistake, and the chancellor correctly rejected that as a basis for reformation. The Court’s reasoning that Mr. Morton’s signing the 1988 document without reading it suggests unconcern with the provisions of the agreement is much more applicable to Theis and Smith, the parties who were in the business of putting together tax deals like this one and who were obviously their limited partners’ motivating experts in these circumstances. I take particular exception to the Court’s statement that, because Theis and Smith intended to get tax benefits for their limited partners and thus they could not be liable as general partners for the debt, “Thus all the parties to the 1978 agreement intended for the debt to be non-recourse. That the non-recourse provision was not included in the 1988 documents was due to mutual mistake.” That is an exercise in illogic. While the absence of negotiation concerning the 1988 agreement and the oversight by the lawyer may have resulted in a mistake, it was clearly not a mutual mistake as contemplated by our cases regarding reformation. To affirm the chancellor creates a bald fiction unsupported by any evidence whatever. I respectfully dissent. Dudley, J., joins in this dissent.