Freidig v. Weed
| Citation | 868 N.W.2d 546 |
| Decision Date | 25 August 2015 |
| Docket Number | No. 20140387.,20140387. |
| Parties | Allan M. FREIDIG and Robin K. Freidig, Plaintiffs and Appellees v. Laura J. WEED, a.k.a. Laura Weed ; all other persons known or unknown claiming any estate or interest in, or lien or encumbrance upon, the property described in the Complaint, Defendants. Laura J. Weed, a.k.a. Laura Weed, Appellant. |
| Court | North Dakota Supreme Court |
John T. Traynor, Jr., Devils Lake, N.D., for plaintiffs and appellees.
Clint D. Morgenstern, Grand Forks, N.D., for defendants and appellant.
[¶ 1] Laura Weed appeals from a judgment reforming a warranty deed and quieting title in a tract of land to Allan and Robin Freidig. Weed argues the district court erred in reforming the warranty deed. We conclude the court did not clearly err in determining a mutual mistake was made in describing the property conveyed in the warranty deed. We affirm.
[¶ 2] In 2003, Weed hired David Hovendick, a registered land surveyor, to survey her house and a five-acre tract of land around her house on the east side of Devils Lake for her lender. According to Hovendick, Weed informed him that she did not want to include any land under Devils Lake in the survey because she did not want the submerged land encumbered by her mortgage. Hovendick's certificate of survey followed Weed's instructions and does not reference the Devils Lake shoreline nor does it extend her property's boundary line below the shoreline.
[¶ 3] In 2004, Weed hired Hovendick to survey and evenly divide another tract of land south of her five-acre parcel into two lots, each about one acre in size. Hovendick's certificates of survey for both lots said the “[p]roperty lines shall extend or shorten to the water's edge with the rise and fall of Devils Lake dictating the West boundary line/shoreline of said property.” According to Hovendick, he used witness corners for those two lake front lots rather than monument corners so an owner could identify the property line as the water rises or falls and he would have used monument corners if Weed had instructed him to set the property corners of those two lots at the shoreline.
[¶ 4] In 2004, Weed employed the Freidigs' real estate firm to sell one of the lots as “lake front property” with “excellent slope to water.” The lot was sold to John and LaMae Henry by warranty deed describing the west boundary of the conveyed land in language tracking Hovendick's certificate of survey that the property lines shall extend or shorten to the water's edge with the rise and fall of Devils Lake dictating the west boundary of the lot.
[¶ 5] In 2005, Weed employed the Freidigs' real estate firm to sell the other lot as “lake front property” with “excellent slope to water.” The lot was sold to Marty Robertson by warranty deed describing the west boundary of the lot “along said water's edge” of Devils Lake and containing “0.97 acres more or less.” The deed was prepared by the same attorney who prepared the earlier Weed–Henry deed and stated the legal description for the lot was obtained from Hovendick's certificate of survey, but the deed did not contain the language describing the west boundary of the lot as extending or shortening to the water's edge with the rise and fall of Devils Lake. According to the attorney who prepared the deeds, he did not recall any specific discussions or conversations regarding the reason for the difference in language in the certificate of survey and the Weed–Robertson warranty deed.
[¶ 6] In 2009, Robertson sold the lot to the Freidigs by warranty deed using the same property description as the Weed–Robertson warranty deed. In 2013, a discrepancy in the lake side boundary of the property described in the Weed–Robertson and Robertson–Freidig warranty deeds was discovered. The Freidigs sued Weed and all others claiming an interest in the lot for reformation to reflect the property line for the lot extended to the water's edge with the rise and fall of Devils Lake and to quiet title in the disputed tract of land to the Freidigs.
[¶ 7] Weed answered, claiming she intended to convey only .97 acres of land to Robertson and it was not her intent to convey any land to Robertson under the water's edge of Devils Lake. She alleged the Weed–Robertson deed did not contain an error in the description of the conveyed land. According to Weed, her earlier deed conveying adjacent property to the Henrys mistakenly described the conveyed property as land below the water's edge of Devils Lake and she did not intend to convey land below the water's edge in the Weed–Robertson deed.
[¶ 8] After a bench trial, the district court determined Weed intended to sell Robertson lakeshore property with the west boundary extending or shortening to the water's edge with the rise and fall of Devils Lake and the Weed–Robertson warranty deed contained a drafting error and mistaken legal description of the lot. The court ruled the omission from the Weed–Robertson deed of the language tracking the surveyor's certificate of survey for the west boundary of the lot was sufficient to support reformation and reformed the Weed–Robertson deed to include language conveying title to the water's edge of Devils Lake as the lake level rose or fell. The court quieted title in that strip of land to the Freidigs.
[¶ 9] Weed argues her testimony establishes she did not intend to convey any land below the water's edge of Devils Lake to Robertson and the district court clearly erred in finding an ambiguity or a mistaken description of the property in the Weed–Robertson warranty deed. She argues grants are construed to ascertain the grantor's intent and her grant to Robertson clearly and unambiguously did not convey land below the water's edge of Devils Lake. She argues there was no evidence of a mutual mistake or a mistake by one party which the other knew or suspected and there was not clear and convincing evidence to support reformation of the Weed–Robertson deed.
[¶ 10] Deeds are construed in the same manner as contracts. Hallin v. Lyngstad, 2013 ND 168, ¶ 8, 837 N.W.2d 888. “The construction of a written contract to determine its legal effect is generally a question of law.” Pear v. Grand Forks Motel Assocs., 553 N.W.2d 774, 779 (N.D.1996). A court interprets a written contract to give effect to the mutual intention of the parties as it existed at the time of contracting. N.D.C.C. 9–07–03 ; Pear, at 779. The parties' intentions must be ascertained from the writing alone, if possible. N.D.C.C. 9–07–04 ; Pear, at 779. In the absence of an ambiguity, a written contract supersedes any prior oral agreement or negotiations between the parties. N.D.C.C. 9–06–07 ; Pear, at 779.
[¶ 11] If a written contract is unambiguous, however, parol evidence is nevertheless admissible in an action to reform the contract on the grounds of mutual mistake to establish the alleged mistake and to correct the instrument to conform to the agreement or intention of the parties. Ell v. Ell, 295 N.W.2d 143, 149 (N.D.1980). We have said a “ ‘mutual mistake that will justify reformation requires that, at the time of the execution of the agreement, both parties intended to say something different from what was said in the document.’ ” Arndt v. Maki, 2012 ND 55, ¶ 12, 813 N.W.2d 564 (quoting Heart River Partners v. Goetzfried, 2005 ND 149, ¶ 15, 703 N.W.2d 330 ). Reformation is an equitable remedy used to reframe written contracts to reflect accurately the real agreement between contracting parties. Spitzer v. Bartelson, 2009 ND 179, ¶ 22, 773 N.W.2d 798. Section 32–04–17, N.D.C.C., provides for the equitable remedy of reformation of a written contract:
When, through fraud or mutual mistake of the parties, or a mistake of one party which the other at the time knew or suspected, a written contract does not truly express the intention of the parties, it may be revised on the application of a party aggrieved so as to express that intention so far as it can be done without prejudice to rights acquired by third persons in good faith and for value.
[¶ 12] A party seeking reformation has the burden to prove by clear and convincing evidence that a written agreement does not fully or truly state the agreement the parties intended to make. Ell, 295 N.W.2d at 150. Parol evidence of an alleged mutual mistake must be clear, satisfactory, specific, and convincing, and a court of equity will not grant reformation upon a mere preponderance of evidence, but only upon certainty of error. Id. Any evidence that tends to show the true intention of the parties, whether it be evidence of conduct or declarations of the parties extrinsic to the contract or documentary evidence, is admissible. Id. at 149. See N.D.C.C. 32–04–19. “In considering whether or not a mutual mistake exists, the court can properly...
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