California Pacific Title Co. v. Moore

MOOR, J. pro tem.

*

Defendant Teresa H. Moore appeals from a judgment reforming a deed.

(For the purpose of clarity the land involved will be described as parcel 1—a large piece of land composed of parcels 2 and 3.)

In February 1961 defendant purchased some land from the Sutton Pumphrey Company. The deed, drawn by plaintiff title company, described parcel 1. A month later defendant received a letter informing her that an error had been made and that the deed should have described only parcel 2. Defendant had recorded her deed. ' When she refused to agree to a reformation, plaintiff brought this action.

Plaintiff’s case was substantially as follows:

Skillman, the agent, testified that he showed the property to defendant. He gave a brochure to defendant that showed all of the Sutton Pumphrey property, but he pointed out the line between parcel 2 and parcel 3 and made it clear to defendant that she was purchasing only parcel 2. There is a gas station on parcel 2, leased to the Signal Oil Company. The defendant first offered $45,000 for the property which would have given her a return of 8 per cent under the lease. The offer was refused, and the actual selling price of $51,428 gives defendant a return of 7 per cent. The deposit receipt described the property as “A parcel of property on the N. line of Greenback Lane at Auburn Blvd. Intersection—(Signal Oil Co. Station).”

Plaintiff’s search file in the present case was No. 300394, and the area to be searched was parcel 2. The base file which covered the larger tract, parcel 1, was No. 167593. Mrs. Brebner, plaintiff’s employee, testified that when she drafted the deed to defendant she had mistakenly used the property description contained in the base file No. 167593, instead of the description of the smaller parcel 2.

The evidence is clearly sufficient to support a finding that plaintiff had been requested to search and draft a deed for

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parcel 2 and had mistakenly substituted the description of the larger parcel 1.

There was also expert testimony that parcel 2 was worth exactly what defendant paid for it and parcel 3 was worth an additional $32,741. In addition, the escrow instructions show that taxes were not to be prorated. Mr. Pumphrey testified that this was because the Signal Oil Company was to pay all the taxes under the lease agreement. However, had the sale been for a parcel of land not covered by the lease, then the taxes would have been prorated.