Berringer v. Schaefer

— The rule which governs cases of this character is well stated by judge Brown in delivering the opinion of the court of appeals in the case of Nevius agt. Dunlap (33 N. Y., 680). He says: “ To entitle a party to a decree of a court of equity reforming a written instrument, he must show, first, a plain mistake, clearly made out by satisfactory proofs. Whenever .the evidence is loose, equivocal or contradictory, or is in its texture open to doubt or opposing presumptions, the relief will not be granted (citing Story's Equity J., 157). This presumption is obvious, *70because the written…