86 S.E. 584 | N.C. | 1915
After stating the case: The defendants contended that, by their answer, they had raised an issue as to whether the fifth tract of land had been omitted from the description in the deed by the mutual mistake of the parties, and also as to whether that tract was included by the description of the lands in the option. It was not described separately by its name, but was a part of the lands answering to the general description in the deed. So that the issue raised by the answer was waived or rendered immaterial by the subsequent admission, in open court, that defendants executed the contract and that it covered all five tracts, four of which had already been conveyed to plaintiff. The defendants further urged that the suit was brought to correct the deed on the ground of mistake, and they had denied that there was any mistake, but this contention is founded on a misconception of the complaint, which sets out a (582) cause of action, not for reformation of the deed, but for the specific enforcement of the agreement to sell the land, which had only been partially performed by a conveyance of four of the tracts. There is no specific prayer in the amended complaint, and no prayer at all, except by reference to the former complaint, the prayer of which is adopted, but that complaint was not sent up as a part of the record, though it is referred to as a part thereof. We must assume, though, that the prayer corresponded with the facts stated and was suited to the relief which they entitled plaintiff to have adjudged.
Where an answer is filed, "the court may grant any relief consistent with the case made by the complaint, and embraced within the issue." Revisal, sec. 565. So that the relief awarded depends not upon the particular form of the prayer, but is gauged by the facts stated in the pleading, and the party is entitled broadly to any relief consistent therewith, whether or not he has prayed for it. Knight v. Houghtalling,
The last case cited is very much like this one, the only difference being that in the one there was an equity of subrogation, while in the other there is an equity for correction of a deed. We there said: "The *665 court should not have ordered an amendment of the original complaint. It was quite sufficient, in its allegations, to warrant a recovery upon the theory of subrogation or that of contract. The prayer does not narrow the scope of the pleading to its own limits, but a party can recover now according to the facts he states in his pleading, and not necessarily or only according to his prayer."
In Knight v. Houghtalling, supra, the prayer was for rescission of the deed, but while the court refused that equity, it, nevertheless, awarded another kind of relief, and one very different from that which was asked for. As the defendants admitted facts which entitled the plaintiff to a full enforcement of the contract by a conveyance of the fifth tract of land, they cannot now be heard to say that their answer raised an issue as to the facts admitted, and, therefore, should have been referred to the jury. What is admitted need not be proved. But if the admission had not been made, it is perfectly manifest that the defendants would have lost in the end, as the description in the option was broad enough to take in the fifth tract with the others, entitling the plaintiff to a specific performance of the same in its entirety, and this could as well be done by an independent conveyance of the fifth tract as by a correction of the deed, so that the issue, as to the mistake, was immaterial in any view. Nor do we think that the complaint, and answer, when properly construed, raised any such issue, as it was the evident purpose of the plaintiff not to have the deed reformed, but to call for a separate deed for the fifth tract to complete the performance of the defendants' contract with him. The mistake in the deed was mentioned incidentally to indicate that the defendants' deed had fallen short of a full performance of the option.
We see no error in the judgment, and, therefore, affirm it.
Affirmed.
Cited: Elliott v. Brady,
(584)