National Assistance Bureau, Inc. v. MacOn Memorial Intermediate Care Home, Inc.

714 F. Supp. 2d 1192, 104 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5588, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66362, 2009 WL 2810450
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Georgia
DecidedJune 8, 2009
Docket5:06-mj-00301
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 714 F. Supp. 2d 1192 (National Assistance Bureau, Inc. v. MacOn Memorial Intermediate Care Home, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
National Assistance Bureau, Inc. v. MacOn Memorial Intermediate Care Home, Inc., 714 F. Supp. 2d 1192, 104 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5588, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66362, 2009 WL 2810450 (M.D. Ga. 2009).

Opinion

ORDER ON PETITIONER’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

C. ASHLEY ROYAL, District Judge.

On February 24, 2005, the Petitioner, National Assistance Bureau, Inc. (“NAB”), purchased property related to a nursing home 1 in Bibb County, Georgia, from Re *1195 spondent Sowers Enterprises, Inc. (“Sowers”). Two years earlier, on April 29, 2003, Sowers had purchased the nursing home property from Respondent Macon Memorial Intermediate Care Home, Inc. (“Macon Memorial”). 2 The land on which the nursing home is located was composed of eight separate parcels. The northernmost of these eight parcels was purchased from Dorothy Vits Lewis in 1987, and has been called the “Lewis Tract” throughout this litigation. The warranty deeds for both the sale to Sowers and the sale to NAB failed to provide a property description for the Lewis Tract, which includes the north end of the nursing home building, a portion of the front parking lot, and half of an outbuilding. In this action, NAB has petitioned the Court to reform the deeds to correct the omission of the Lewis Tract, and to quiet title to the property as to all the world.

Although all parties to the sale transactions agree that the deeds should be reformed to reflect the intent of the parties to convey the entire property of the nursing home, the petition is opposed by the Respondent, the United States of America (“the Government”). The Government objects to the reformation of the deeds because it seeks to enforce tax liens filed by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) against Macon Memorial. These liens were imposed after the sale to Sowers. The IRS first attempted to file a lien on July 26, 2004, fifteen months after the sale. This lien was filed under an incorrect name, however, as it was recorded in the records of the Superior Court of Bibb County only under the name “Memorial Intermediate Care Home, Inc.” On August 16, 2005, more than five months after the sale from Sowers to NAB, the IRS realized its error and filed an amended notice of tax lien against “Macon Memorial Intermediate Care Home, Inc.” The Government contends that the IRS tax liens attach to the Lewis Tract because Macon Memorial was the record owner of the property at the time the liens were filed. NAB contends that the liens do not attach because Macon Memorial had no interest in the property at the time that the liens were filed.

The parties agree that the facts in this case are undisputed. Upon review of these undisputed facts and the relevant legal authorities, the Court finds that equity demands the reformation of the warranty deeds of April 29, 2003, and February 24, 2005, so that they reflect the plain intent of the parties to effect the transfer of the entire nursing home property, including the property known as the Lewis Tract, first to Sowers and then to NAB. The Court further finds that this reformation relates back to the date of the transfer to Sowers executed on April 29, 2003. As such, any liens filed as to Macon Memorial subsequent to that transfer do not attach to the Lewis Tract.

A. Equitable Reformation

The warranty deeds of April 29, 2003, and February 24, 2005, are subject to equitable reformation because it is undisputed that all parties to the transactions intended them to convey the entire property of the nursing home, including the Lewis Tract. Georgia law provides that equity shall interfere to make a conveyance conform to the intention of the parties, if it is shown that “the form of the conveyance is, *1196 by accident or mistake, contrary to the intention of the parties in their contract.” O.C.G.A. § 23-2-25. The equitable remedy of reformation is described by the Supreme Court of Georgia in Chapman v. Cassels Co., 180 Ga. 349, 179 S.E. 91 (1935):

Where there is in fact a sale or mortgage of property, by one man to another, and, by a mistake in the execution of the conveyance, the true intention or contract of the parties is not expressed, it is a common and very ancient jurisdiction of Courts of Equity to correct the mistake, to cause the instrument to speak the facts, and to put the parties, as to each other, in the true position in which they thought they had placed themselves. Nor is this relief confined to the original parties, but will be extended, both for and against their privies, in estate and in law.

Id. (quoting Burke v. Anderson, 40 Ga. 535 (1869)). Through reformation, equity ensures that parties to a transfer of property get the benefit of their bargain, and restores them to the position they should have occupied except for their mutual mistake in the execution of the conveyance.

The “common and very ancient” remedy of reformation was created for cases just such as the present one, in which the undisputed evidence shows that it was the true intention of Macon Memorial to transfer all of the real property associated with the nursing home to Sowers when it executed the warranty deed on April 29, 2003. It was the true intention of Sowers to purchase the entire nursing home, including all of the real property underneath it. The evidence likewise shows that Sowers intended to transfer the same real property to NAB on February 24, 2005, and that NAB intended to purchase all of it. It was only by a technical mistake, undetected by any party at the time of the transactions, that the deeds of conveyance failed to provide a legal description of one piece of the property. As such, reformation of the deeds is required in equity to correct the mistake and put the parties in the position in which they intended to place themselves and thought they had placed themselves.

Cases factually similar to the present case demonstrate that equity warrants reformation of deeds so that they conform to the actual intent of the parties. In Chapman, the Supreme Court affirmed a trial court’s judgment and held that reformation was proper where it was shown that a security deed did not reflect the parties’ actual intent. Evidence showed that the parties intended to convey a one-fifth interest in one parcel of land and an entire interest in several other tracts. Because of a scrivener’s error, the security deed indicated that only a one-fifth undivided interest was conveyed in all the tracts. In ordering equitable reformation of the conveyances, the court explained that the purpose of such reformation was to correct errors and make instruments reflect the established intent of the parties:

In every case under this head of the law, the only inquiry is, does the instrument contain what the parties intended it should, and understood that it did? Is it their agreement? If not, then it may be reformed by aliunde proof, so as to make it the evidence of what was the true bargain ... between the parties. And it is wholly immaterial from what cause the defective execution of the intent of the parties originated.

Id. at 349, 179 S.E. 91. (ellipsis in original) (quoting Wyche v. Greene, 16 Ga. 49 (1854)).

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Bluebook (online)
714 F. Supp. 2d 1192, 104 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5588, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66362, 2009 WL 2810450, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-assistance-bureau-inc-v-macon-memorial-intermediate-care-home-gamd-2009.