Nelson v. Meadville

WHITE, J., pro tem.

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laintiff was the owner of certain real property situated in the states of Wyoming and Colorado. On April 26, May 25, and November 15, 1933, plaintiff and defendant Graham G. Meadville executed four written

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option agreements purporting to grant to the latter an option to purchase, lease, sell, or develop the property in question. The written instruments which were introduced in evidence, provided that the option should be for'25 years; but it was plaintiff’s contention in her amended complaint and at the trial that she intended, understood, and believed that the options should be effective for only six months; that defendants knew plaintiff so intended and understood said agreements, but that the defendants, with intent to deceive the plaintiff, falsely and fraudulently represented to her that the agreements were to be in effect for only six months, but executed the instruments in question so that they provided for 25-year options instead of six months. During the trial, at the conclusion of plaintiff’s case, the action was dismissed as to the defendant Mrs. Graham G. Meadville.

The court found that prior to and at the time of the execution of the agreements defendant represented to plaintiff that the agreements were to be in effect for only six months; that defendant dictated the instruments and provided therein for an option of 25 years’ duration. The trial court also found that defendant failed to pay to plaintiff, as provided in said agreements, certain sums of money, and that there was a total lack of consideration; that said options were void and of no force or effect. Judgment was entered thereon in favor of plaintiff, decreeing that the instruments in question were void; that defendant was entitled to no rights thereunder; and that the instruments be canceled. From such judgment defendant Graham G. Meadville prosecutes this appeal.

The main contention of appellant is that because at the time the agreements were executed the respondent examined and read the documents before she signed them, that she inquired as to what the 25-year provision was for, and that she then signed the agreement, there could have been no mistake or fraud on defendant’s part; and as the defendant testified at the trial that it was distinctly understood between himself and plaintiff that he was to have a 25-year option, there was no mutual mistake, no fraud, and consequently no ground for a court of equity to cancel and declare void the instruments in question. For the purpose of determining, however, whether the instruments expressed the intention of both parties thereto, or whether the inser