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82 Vt. 166

Fuller v. Knapp

Supreme Court of Vermont

Decided April 13, 1909

Supreme Court of Vermont · decided 1909-04-13

Appeal in Chancery. Heard on the pleadings and findings of fact made by the chancellor, at the April Term, 1907, Windham County, Taylor, Chancellor. Decree dismissing the bill with costs to the defendant. The orator appealed.

Relies on Shattuck v. Gay · Barry v. Harris · Griswold v. Smith

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1909-04-13

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently May 1940

4 state decisions

2019091910192019301940decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Watson, J.

¶1In the findings of fact, the chancellor says he is unable to find with the degree of certainty required by law that the orators reserved the tree tops in their trade with the defendant, or that they intended to have any reservation concerning the wood which they were to cut therefrom expressed in the deed to the defendant, and he is more inclined to think that they were content to let the understanding as to their right to get wood from the tree tops rest in parol. No admissions are made in defendant’s answer • requiring a different conclusion of fact.

¶2The case presented does not entitle the orators to the relief sought. A court of equity will reform a written contract, and especially a deed, on the ground of mistake, only when the evidence showing the mistake is strong and of a conclusive character, such as shall establish the fact beyond reasonable doubt. Griswold v. Smith, 10 Vt. 452; Cleveland v. Burton, 11 Vt. 138; Goodell v. Field, 15 Vt. 448; Preston v. Whitcomb, 17 Vt. 183; Shattuck v. Gay, 45 Vt. 87; Barry v. Harris, 49 Vt. 392.

¶3Decree affirmed and cause remanded.

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