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negligence of the complaining party will not defeat her right to
reformation if the other party has not been prejudiced. McCollum
v. Loveless, supra at 118 (no prejudice in reformation of deed
"so as to make it speak the truth").
In Curry v. Curry, 473 S.E.2d 760 (Ga. 1996), Cordelia
Simmons (Cordelia) told her attorney that she wanted to give her
grandson, Enos Curry (Enos), the "property 'where * * * [her]
house sits'", and instructed her attorney to prepare a deed
conveying it to him. Id. at 761. When she signed the deed, the
space for the property description was blank. Her attorney added
a description of an adjoining lot that Cordelia had previously
conveyed, and then delivered the deed to Enos, who recorded it.
Neither Cordelia nor Enos read the deed at any time. Id. Later,
after Cordelia was declared incompetent, Cordelia's guardian,
James Curry (James), filed a complaint against Enos, seeking
ejectment and a declaratory judgment. It was only after James
filed this ejectment action that the grantee learned that the
deed conveyed the wrong lot. Id. at 762.
The issue before the Supreme Court of Georgia was whether
Enos was entitled to reformation of the deed based on the
mistaken description of the property. The court found that the
error in the deed describing a lot that Cordelia had already
conveyed was a mistake common to both parties, and it held that
Enos was entitled to reformation of the deed to correct its
erroneous description. Id.
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