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Call Now: 904-383-7448A mistake of law by the draftsman or other agent, by which the contract, as executed, does not fulfill or violates the manifest intention of the parties to the agreement, may be relieved in equity.
(Orig. Code 1863, § 3056; Code 1868, § 3068; Code 1873, § 3123; Code 1882, § 3123; Civil Code 1895, § 3980; Civil Code 1910, § 4577; Code 1933, § 37-205.)
Equity will relieve against mutual mistake, but only at the instance of a complainant who moves with reasonable diligence. What is a reasonable time must necessarily depend upon the peculiar facts and environments of the particular case. Parker v. Fisher, 207 Ga. 3, 59 S.E.2d 715 (1950).
- In certifying certain questions to the Georgia Supreme Court, the federal Court of Appeals concluded that it is an open question of Georgia law whether a person injured by a municipality has a beneficial interest in the municipality's liability contract sufficient to provide standing to seek reformation. Florida Int'l Indem. Co. v. City of Metter, 952 F.2d 1297 (11th Cir. 1992), aff'd, 984 F.2d 1138 (11th Cir. 1993).
- Where a petition is brought by assignee for reformation of a written lease and option agreement, alleging a valuable consideration, and that permanent improvements had been made on the property involved, and that an alleged inadequate description of the property had been made by mistake of the draftsman, it having been the intention of the parties that the description contended for be inserted in the agreement, and further alleging that unless so reformed an unconscionable advantage would be acquired by the defendant, such allegations state a case for reformation of the lease and option agreement. Martin v. Oakhurst Dev. Corp., 197 Ga. 288, 29 S.E.2d 179 (1944).
A petition for reformation of a written contract will lie where by mistake of the scrivener and by oversight of the parties, the writing does not embody or fully express the real contract of the parties. McLoon v. McLoon, 220 Ga. 18, 136 S.E.2d 740 (1964).
Cited in Bender v. Randall Bros., 189 Ga. 197, 5 S.E.2d 889 (1939); Gibbs v. H.T. Henning Co., 189 Ga. 675, 7 S.E.2d 238 (1940); Redmond v. Sinclair Ref. Co., 204 Ga. 699, 51 S.E.2d 409 (1949); Sheldon v. Hargrose, 213 Ga. 672, 100 S.E.2d 898 (1957); Flagg v. Hedrick, 215 Ga. 16, 108 S.E.2d 703 (1959); Robinson v. Wright, 217 Ga. 199, 121 S.E.2d 640 (1961); Seaboard Constr. Co. v. Clifton, 121 Ga. App. 247, 173 S.E.2d 436 (1970).
- 27 Am. Jur. 2d, Equity, §§ 35, 36.
- 30 C.J.S., Equity, § 44 et seq.
- Relief in equity from mistake of law, 75 A.L.R. 896.
No results found for Georgia Code 23-2-23.