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McDonald v. Mullins

Supreme Court of Georgia1944-03-08No. No. 14773
197 Ga. 511

Summary

Holding. The court affirmed the judgment reforming the deed. A court of equity has jurisdiction to reform a written instrument when one party's ignorance or mistake is accompanied by fraud or inequitable conduct by the other party, and reformation is appropriate here where the purchaser relied on boundary representations made at the time of sale that did not match the deed description.

A court may use its equity powers to reform a written deed when one party acts with fraud or inequitable conduct while the other party acts in ignorance or under mistake. The misrepresentation need not be intentional to constitute fraud in law—it is sufficient that a false statement about material facts was made and relied upon. In this case, the plaintiff purchased property at an auction sale in Atlanta in 1939, and the defendant and the auctioneer pointed out specific boundary markers (a concrete wall and fence) representing the southern and northern limits of the parcel. The plaintiff relied on these representations when making the purchase.

The defendant later claimed ownership of a portion of the northern section of the property, including land where the plaintiff had made improvements such as a small building, fruit trees, and landscaping features. The plaintiff discovered only recently that the deed description did not match the actual boundaries that had been indicated during the sale. The court allowed the plaintiff's petition to proceed and ultimately sided with the plaintiff, ordering the deed to be reformed to include all property up to the fence boundary that was pointed out at the time of purchase.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Whether equity may reform a deed based on misrepresentation of property boundaries
  • Whether fraud in law requires proof of intentional falsehood
  • Whether a purchaser's reliance on boundary representations at sale justifies deed reformation

Procedural posture

The defendant appealed from a judgment that overruled her general demurrer to the plaintiff's amended petition and resulted in a jury verdict in favor of the plaintiff seeking reformation of the deed.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

Wyatt, Justice.

Equity has jurisdiction to reform a written instrument where there has been ignorance or mistake on the part of one of the parties, accompanied by fraud or inequitable conduct on the part of the other party. Reese v. Wyman, 9 Ga. 430; Wyche v. Greene, 26 Ga, 415; Adair v. McDonald, 42 Ga. 506; Venable v. Burton, 129 Ga. 537 (59 S. E. 253) ; White v. Foster, 157 Ga. 493 (122 S. E. 29) ; Gibson v. Alford, 161 Ga. 672 (132 S. E. 442) ; Hunnicutt v. Archer, 163 Ga. 868 (137 S. E. 253) ; Lynch Enterprise Finance Corporation v. Realty Construction Co., 176 Ga. 700 (168 S. E. 782). If the fraud or inequitable conduct complained of consists of an alleged misrepresentation of fact, it is immaterial whether the party , making the misrepresentation knows it to be false or not; it is none the less fraud in law, even though not fraud in fact. Reese v. Wyman and Gibson v. Alford, supra. Thus, where a vendor sells to another a designated tract of land and points out to the latter its boundaries, and the purchaser relies on the representation, equity will, at the instance of the purchaser, reform the deed from the vendor if the deed by misdescription contains land different from that which the parties agreed upon. Gibson v. Alford, supra. Accordingly, in the instant case, the court properly overruled the general demurrer to the petition as amended, which alleged in substance that the plaintiff purchased from the defendant a designated tract of land in the City of Atlanta in 1939, at an auction sale; and at the time of the purchase the defendant and her agent, the auctioneer, .pointed out a concrete wall and a fence as representing the southern and northern boundaries of the property respectively; that the defendant owns the property on the north side of the property purchased; that the plaintiff relied upon the representation of the defendant and her agent as to the location of the northern line of the property; that the line represented by the fence on the north was agreed upon as the line at the time of the purchase; that the defendant now claims a portion of the property on the northern side of said tract, on which is located a portion of a three-room shack and other improvements, such as fruit trees, shrubbery, rock-pool, bird-bath, etc., and the defendant is trying to take possession of and remove the house from the land; that until recently the plaintiff did not know that her deed did not include all the property as far north as the fence pointed out by the defendant at the time of the sale as being the northern boundary line. Besides seeking injunctive relief, there was a prayer for reformation of the deed so as to make it include the property in dispute. There is a distinction between this type of case and one where there is merely a misrepresentation as to the contents of the deed itself. Green v. Johnson, 153 Ga. 738 (113 S. E. 402).

No. 14773.

March 8, 1944.

Rehearing denied March 20, 1944.

Oliver G. Hancock, J. Wighiman Bowden, and John B. Strother. for plaintiff in error.

Thomas B. McLemore, contra.

2. The special demurrers, not being argued or insisted on in the brieE of counsel for the plaintiff in error, are treated as abandoned.

3. The special grounds of the motion for new trial consist of seven assignments excepting to the court’s charge, and two assignments excepting to the admission of evidence. These grounds are not argued in the brief of counsel for the plaintiff in error, but there is a statement in general terms insisting on all of the grounds of the motion. All of these special assignments have been examined, and they do not show error requiring the grant of a new trial.

4. The verdict of the jury finding in favor of the plaintiff, reforming the deed, was supported by the evidence.

5. The court did not err in overruling the motion for new trial.

Judgment affirmed.

All the Justices concur.