89 W. Va. 608 | W. Va. | 1921
In this suit to enjoin an action of unlawful entry and de-tainer, and to have reformation of a contract of lease, and relief from an alleged forfeiture thereunder, the circuit court denied the plaintiffs any relief, dissolved the temporary injunction granted them, and dismissed their bill, and this appeal is prosecuted to review that decree.
The plaintiffs W. W. Hanly and John C. Shoupe, together with one George R. Wheeler, entered into a contract of lease with the defendant dated the 14th of August, 1907, by the terms of which Harmison leased to them a small tract of about one-half acre of land situate on the South Branch of the Potomac River, together with the right to hunt and fish on the farm of the defendant, as well as some other rights not material to be considered in connection with the contro
About the 19th of August, 1917, the defendant Harmison gave notice to the plaintiffs that the lease under which they were holding the premises had expired on the 14th of that month, and requiring them to at once vacate. They declined to do so, but insisted that they were entitled to keep the property for ten additional years under the renewal provision, and insisted that their original contract did not expire until the first of September of that year instead of the 14th of August, and demanded a renewal of the lease for an additional ten years. Some correspondence passed between the parties without result, when the defendant Harmison instituted an action of unlawful entry and detainer against the plaintiffs in this suit. This bill was thereupon filed in which the plaintiffs allege that there was a mutual mistake in the original lease, in this, that the agreement of the parties was that the term should commence on the 1st of September, 1907 and continue for ten years, making it expire with the 31st of August, 1917; while the language of the lease is that it is for a term of ten years from the date thereof, said date being the 14th of August; and averring that during the whole period all of the parties had treated the term as beginning on said first day of September, and had treated the annual rental period as extending from Sept. 1st to Sept. 1st; and praying that the plaintiff in the unlawful entry and detainer suit be enjoined from further prosecuting the same; that the lease be reformed so as to make the term therein provided begin on the first day of September, 1907, and the said Harmison be required to execute a renewal of said lease for an additional term of ten years from the first of September, 1917; or, if the evidence should turn out to be insufficient to -justify relief by reformation, that the plaintiffs be relieved from the forfeiture of their right of renewal for an additional ten years by reason of their failure to .demand
Should the court have reformed this contract upon the evidence offered for that purpose? It appears from this evidence that the parties who negotiated the contract were Shoupe and Wheeler on the one hand, and Harmison on the other, Hanly not being present at the time. Wheeler and Shoupe both testify that negotiations were conducted sometime in the month of August, and that they resulted in an agreement for the lease upon the terms expressed therein, except that it was definitely and positively agreed and understood that the rental period should begin oil the first of September, 1907, which was only a few days after the negotiations. There is no equivocation, or doubt in their testimony about this being the understanding as between them and Harmison. Wheeler says that he then wrote the contract when he returned to his home at Cumberland, Maryland, and by inadvertence omitted to state therein that the term should begin on September 1, 1907, and that he never noticed this omission until the controversy arose. In addition to this oral testimony there is introduced in evidence two receipts from Harmison for the rental for two years, which it is argued
That equity has jurisdiction to reform a contract because of a mutual mistake is not questioned, nor can there-be any question that when such reformation is resisted the evidence to justify the same must be clear, convincing and satisfactory. When, however, the evidence is of that character, a court of equity will not hesitate to reform a contract and make it speak the real agreement of the parties. The fact that one of the parties denies the right of reformation will not defeat relief, for it may be said as a general rule that if all of the parties were agreed upon this question there would be no litigation. Such a controversy arises as a rule upon the refusal of one of the parties to submit to any change in the contract -as written. As above indicated, the oral evidence of Shoupe and Wheeler is clear, positive and direct that the term was to begin on the 1st of September, 1907, while the
In this case the evidence convinces us that the plaintiffs are right in their contention, and we will, therefore, reverse
Reversed.