Metropolitan Life Insurance v. Tannenbaum

This is an action to reform a policy. Reformation is prima facie difficult only because it is hard to analyze what the theory of the action is. In every written contract there must be a previous oral contract, i. e., a meeting of the minds before the signatures are affixed. The written contract completely wipes out the oral. There is a presumption that no matter what the parties orally agreed, they agreed on what the writing said. When a plaintiff asks reformation he must overcome that by clear and convincing evidence. If there is any fraud in misrepresenting what the contract was, the…