Crowley v. Holdsworth

162 N.E. 334, 264 Mass. 303, 1928 Mass. LEXIS 1251
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedJune 29, 1928
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 162 N.E. 334 (Crowley v. Holdsworth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Crowley v. Holdsworth, 162 N.E. 334, 264 Mass. 303, 1928 Mass. LEXIS 1251 (Mass. 1928).

Opinion

Sanderson, J.

The plaintiffs are seeking rescission and cancellation of a deed, mortgage and note and an order for repayment to them of the purchase price of certain real estate in Hull, with a further prayer that the court make such orders as may be necessary to place the parties in statu quo.

The alleged grounds of relief are mutual mistake and failure [306]*306to keep an agreement to grant a right of way and to give a bond. The defendants contend that the plaintiffs’ proper remedy is reformation, and they offer conveyances of the property to which, according to the master’s findings, the plaintiffs are entitled. The defendants also filed a cross bill to recover for money due them on adjustment of interest, and later by amendment asked for other relief. The property in question consists of about seven hundred fifty thousand square feet of land, with a hotel, outbuildings and cottages located thereon, situated at the easterly end of Nantasket Beach. The judge, after overruling all exceptions to and confirming the master’s report and supplemental report, ruled that upon the facts found the plaintiffs are not entitled to rescission but are entitled to have the contract reformed in accordance with the findings of the master, and that the deeds tendered to the plaintiffs on April 16, 1926, were validly tendered and were effective to operate as a satisfaction of the plaintiffs’ claim. A final decree was entered in accordance with these rulings, which included an order for the payment of money by the plaintiffs to the defendants. The plaintiffs appealed from the interlocutory and final decrees. The defendants are content with the decree entered.

The defendants Holdsworth and Farrington acted through the defendant Rowell in taking conveyance of the land in question from J. Linfield Damon and the L. Damon’s Sons Company, and in making conveyance to the plaintiffs; and these transactions by Rowell will be treated and referred to as the acts of the defendants.

One of the grounds of the plaintiffs’ contention that rescission and not reformation is the proper remedy is that the offer to reform came too late. The offer to deliver executed deeds describing the additional land to be conveyed was apparently made after the draft report had been seen. The master found “that at no time would the plaintiffs have been willing to accept a tender of conveyance of the property described in the . . . deeds ... as a satisfaction of their claims against the defendants. They were at all times relying, not only upon the mutual mistake as to identity of plans, but on the mutual mistake which they alleged with regard to [307]*307the quantity of the Damon ownership. They have not at any time expressed any willingness to accept deeds of any definite description. ... I find that the defendants acted with due diligence in making the offer of conveyances to the plaintiffs upon which they have relied, as previously reported, to constitute the ‘tender’ alleged in their supplemental answer; that under the circumstances disclosed the defendants made reasonable efforts and used due diligence to procure for the plaintiffs conveyances of the land and right of way to which the plaintiffs were entitled, as soon as they were sufficiently informed regarding the extent of the conveyances which would or ought to satisfy the plaintiffs’ claims; and that the failure of the defendants to procure and offer such conveyances to the plaintiffs before April 16, 1926, was not due to fault on the part of the defendants.” These are findings of fact upon evidence not reported; they are not inconsistent with the other findings and must stand.

The cause of the mutual mistake made by the parties was that, in making their agreement, they used and referred to a plan identified by the letters XYZ, although the deed was drawn according to a plan called the Foster Plan, made after the agreement was signed. The master found that “The mistake of the parties did not lie in supposing that the Rowell deed conveyed a certain quantity of land, whereas it actually conveyed a lesser quantity. Their mutual mistake was in supposing that the northerly bound of the property delineated on the Foster Plan was substantially the same fine as the northerly bound delineated and described on the XYZ Plan, that is, that it was substantially the same as the line of the top of the bluff; and that Rowell’s deed to the plaintiffs, with its description by reference to the Foster Plan, conveyed land substantially to the northerly bound delineated on the XYZ Plan. The parties therefore were mutually mistaken regarding the identity of the two plans, and as a result of this mistake they were mutually mistaken as to the bounds of the land which they both believed to be conveyed to the plaintiffs by the Rowell deed.”

The plaintiffs have contended from the time of fifing their bill, and urge as an additional ground of rescission, that there [308]*308was another mutual mistake, namely, that the parties were mistaken in the belief that the land described in the deed was all the land in Hull owned by L. Damon’s Sons Company, the defendants’ grantors, during the pendency of the negotiations which led to the delivery of the deed. This contention has not been sustained. The master found that the negotiations throughout proceeded upon the basis that the property the plaintiffs intended to buy and the defendants to sell was that shown upon the XYZ Plan and described thereby; that express reference, to that plan in the written agreement is not enlarged by the subsequent reference to the defendants’ expected purchase from the company, and that they did not incorporate into the written terms expressing their agreement any mistaken belief they may have had that the deed from the company conveyed all the land it owned in Hull.

Upon the finding that because of mutual mistake the deed did not convey the land which the defendants intended to sell and the plaintiffs to buy, reformation by the delivery of proper deeds to express the real intention of the parties is the appropriate remedy. Sawyer v. Hovey, 3 Allen, 331. Page v. Higgins, 150 Mass. 27, 30. Keene v. Demelman, 172 Mass. 17, 22. J. P. Eustis Manuf. Co. v. Saco Brick Co. 198 Mass. 212, 218. Dzuris v. Pierce, 216 Mass. 132, 135. Winston v. Pittsfield, 221 Mass. 356.

The plaintiffs also contend that the deed was delivered upon two conditions, one relating to a statutory bond to be given to dissolve an attachment placed upon the real estate before conveyance by the defendants’ predecessors in title; and the other to an agreement to grant to the plaintiffs a certain right of way. At the time the conveyance was made to the plantiffs the fact was noticed that the deed and plan contained no reference to any right of way around the bath house to the bathing beach, and it was then understood that the deed would be accepted on the condition that the defendants would give the plaintiffs the right of way and file a statutory bond to dissolve the attachment as soon as they could, counsel for the plaintiffs stating that he meant by that within a week or two. The defendants thereupon instructed [309]*309their counsel to find out what counsel for the plaintiffs wanted and to get the right of way from Damon and get the bond so that the “thing can go through all right.” Counsel for the plaintiffs then said, “Upon that condition I will recommend to Mr. Crowley [one of the plaintiffs] that he accept the deed.” One of the defendants then said “All right, we will get you those two things.”

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Bluebook (online)
162 N.E. 334, 264 Mass. 303, 1928 Mass. LEXIS 1251, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crowley-v-holdsworth-mass-1928.