Smith v. Smith, 219 W. Va. 619

Summary

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia addressed a challenge to a deed conveying property and reserving the grantors’ right to use a parking lot. The court held that parol evidence may establish mutual mistake even when a deed is clear and unambiguous, but affirmed denial of reformation because the evidence did not clearly and convincingly prove a mutual mistake. The court also interpreted the parking-lot reservation as ambiguous and limited the grantors’ use to ingress and egress, occasional parking, and an annual apple butter festival subject to stated limitations.

Holdings

1. Parol evidence is admissible to establish and correct a mutual mistake in a clear and unambiguous deed because the parol evidence rule does not apply to evidence offered for that purpose.
2. To reform a clear and unambiguous deed for mistake, the mistake must be one of fact, mutual and common to both parties, the deed must fail to express the parties' obvious intention, and the mistake must be proved by strong, clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence. The appellants failed to meet that burden.
3. The reservation is ambiguous and must be construed to allow the appellants' preexisting ingress-and-egress use, occasional parking, and a limited annual three-day apple butter festival, but not continued parking of their bus.

Questions Presented

1. Whether parol evidence may be admitted to establish mutual mistake and reform a clear and unambiguous deed.
2. Whether the appellants proved by the required heightened standard that the deed resulted from a mutual mistake concerning the property's boundaries.
3. Whether the deed's reservation of the appellants' right 'to use the parking lot' included uses beyond ingress, egress, and occasional parking, particularly an annual apple butter festival and continued bus parking.

Disposition

other