U.S. v. LaRosa, 84-1585

• Decision Date: 20 June 1985
• Docket Number: No. 84-1585,84-1585
• Citation: 765 F.2d 693
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John M. LaROSA and Esther C. LaRosa, et al., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 693

765 F.2d 693

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John M. LaROSA and Esther C. LaRosa, et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 84-1585.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued Feb. 11, 1985.

Decided June 20, 1985.

Bruce M. Pennamped, Forbes, Kias & Pennamped, P.C., Indianapolis, Ind., for defendants-appellants.

Robert L. Klarquist, Dept. of Justice, Land & Natural Resources Div., Appellate Sec., Washington, D.C., for plaintiff-appellee.

Before CUMMINGS, Chief Judge, BAUER and FLAUM, Circuit Judges.

FLAUM, Circuit Judge.

The United States brought this action in the district court seeking to reform a deed that had conveyed property to the government in order to make the deed conform to the actual common boundary line plotted out on the ground. The district court, pursuant to rule 54(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, found that there was no just cause for delay in entering judgment and directed entry of judgment for the United States. We affirm.

I.

In the mid-1950's, the United States Army Corps of Engineers ("Army Corps") began to plan the construction of the Cecil M. Hardin Reservoir on a portion of land acquired by the United States in Parke County, Indiana. Since the reservoir was to aid in flood control and since the water level in the lake near the dam was expected to fluctuate, the Army Corps had to coordinate the amount of additional land that it would have to acquire to the projected highest water level surrounding the lake, or 678 feet above mean sea level. In 1957, the Army Corps contracted with the Michael Baker, Jr. surveying firm to determine the contour elevations enclosing the planned reservoir and the amount of land that would have to be purchased from the nearby landowners in order to complete the project. After wooden stakes and various colors of paint were used to plot the boundaries, one of the surveyors, Roy Taylor, sent his book of field notes to the surveying firm's office for conversion into formal written deeds. The surveying firm also drew up segment maps based on the plotted boundary lines in order to show the relationship between the survey line and the privately-held parcels of land. The Army Corps proceeded to negotiate with landowners to acquire the requisite land.

As a result of an error in converting Taylor's field notes into a deed description for the property belonging to one of the landowners, Ella Burk, the deed that was drafted by the surveying firm depicted one of the boundary lines as being north of a section line rather than south as the markers indicated. On February 28, 1959, Ella Burk executed the deed in favor of the United States. In July 1959, Burk conveyed all of her remaining property, which she had not previously sold to the United States and which abutted the parcel acquired by the United States, to Thomas Gates and two of his partners. Gates hired a surveyor, William Crowley, in order to begin surveying for the development of a subdivision. When the surveyor was unable to locate a section corner of Gates's parcel using the written deed, he decided to prepare a subdivision map using the property's red-colored boundary line as the western boundary and recorded this map in the recorder of deeds office.

In 1965, the United States had the Baker surveying firm place iron boundary marking posts and concrete boundary monuments along the boundary line marked on the property. In 1974, Gates began negotiating with the defendants LaRosas for the sale of the property. Gates gave the LaRosas a copy of Crowley's subdivision map showing boundary lines corresponding to the actual markers on the property. Prior to closing the deal in August 1974, the LaRosas hired a surveyor, Alan Stanley, to conduct a survey. When Stanley was unable to follow the written deed calls on the property, he decided to extend one of the boundary lines in the deed, thereby giving the LaRosas more property. In 1976, after the LaRosas had purchased the property, Stanley was preparing a plat map for the LaRosas for use in establishing a subdivision and found that the plat map seemed to match the government's boundary markers placed on the land rather than his 1974 survey with the line extension. The LaRosas rejected this plat map and ordered Stanley to redraw the map in conformance with his 1974 survey.

In July 1979, the United States brought this suit against the LaRosas and the purchasers of subdivided lots from the LaRosas, seeking a decree to quiet title to the disputed land, a decree to reform the Burk deed to match the actual markers located on the land, and an order to prevent the LaRosas from trespassing on the land. The LaRosas claimed that they were bona fide purchasers and that the United States should be estopped from asserting the deed defects against them. Following a trial, the district court decided in favor of the United States, holding that the deed was ambiguous when plotted out on the actual land and that, therefore, the parties could introduce parol evidence to reveal their intent. The court proceeded to reform the deed to correspond to the parties' mutual intent and found that the LaRosas were not bona fide purchasers and that the United States should not be estopped from seeking reformation of the deed. On appeal, the LaRosas contend that the district court erred in admitting parol evidence, in concluding that mutual mistake had occurred, and in finding that the LaRosas were not bona fide purchasers and that the United States was not estopped from asserting its claim. We will address these issues in turn below.

II.

The defendants argue that the district court abused its discretion in admitting and using parol evidence to aid in ascertaining the intent of the parties to the deed since the legal description in the deed was clear, unambiguous, and sufficient on its face. The courts in Indiana ¹ have held that parol evidence can be admitted in order to explain a mistake of fact in a deed and thereby to express the true agreement of the parties. See, e.g., McCasland v. Aetna Life Insurance Co., 108 Ind. 130, 131, 9 N.E. 119, 119 (1886); Hollars v. Stephenson, 121 Ind.App. 410, 414-17, 99 N.E.2d 258, 260-62 (1951); Wieneke v. Deputy, 31 Ind.App. 621, 624, 68 N.E. 921, 922 (1903). A mistake of fact occurs when there is a discrepancy between what the parties to a deed intend to convey and what is actually conveyed, as described in the deed. Baker v. Pyatt, 108 Ind. 61, 66-69, 9 N.E. 112, 115-16 (1886). Thus, in cases where the calls in a deed are conflicting or ambiguous or when an effort to apply the description to the ground gives rise to an ambiguity, parol evidence is admissible in order to show where the actual survey or boundary line has been plotted on the ground. 6 Thompson, The Law of Real Property 469-71, 570 (J. Grimes ed. 1962).

In the present case, we affirm the decision of the district court in admitting parol evidence and in reforming the Burk deed to correspond to the boundary markers placed on the disputed parcel of land. Since the written calls in the deed did not form a bounded parcel of land or failed to close when traced out on the land, ² it was proper for the district court to allow the admission of parol evidence to clarify the ambiguity in the deed. The parol evidence revealed that the United States had had the land surveyed in 1957 and had placed wooden stakes and markers...