Watts v. Yeary
Watts v. Yeary
Opinion of the Court
Reversing.
The appeal is from a judgment dismissing “the plaintiff’s petition and the petition as amended and reply” and cancelling, setting aside and holding for nanght “all orders heretofore entered overruling the demurrer of defendant to the petition, petition as amended and to the reply.”
In the petition originally filed, appellant based his cause of action upon the breach of a written contract which he filed with the petition. A demurrer was sustained to this pleading. Appellant amended his petition in which he sought to reform the written contract, alleging that by mutual mistake certain material provisions were omitted from the writing. He then prayed judgment on the contract as he alleged it should be reformed. He then filed a second amended petition in which he alleged that the agreement as set out in the petition and amended petition if reduced to writing “should be as follows.” He then composed a draft of the contract in the words and figures he alleged should have been used in the drafting of the writing executed by the parties. The demurrer to this pleading was overruled. At the next term of court the defendants filed motion to strike from the petition as amended all allegations and claims in respect to an alleged breach of contract of a transaction which occurred September 21, 1947, because the contract sought to be reformed related to the breach of a contract dated August 8, 1947. Defendants filed a second motion to strike, which was directed at numerous allegations contained in the petition as amended. They gave no reason for striking any of the allegations quoted in the motion. They then filed a motion to strike
Defendants then answered setting forth their version of the transactions between the parties. Plaintiff moved to strike certain allegations from the answer without assigning any reason therefor; and, without waiving the motion, filed a general demurrer to the answer as a whole and to each paragraph thereof and “to each line and sentence of each paragraph thereof.” On the same day, without waiving the motion to strike and without waiving the demurrer, plaintiff filed a reply wherein he denied the alleged effect of certain written “trip lease contracts” upon the contract sued on. A demurrer was filed to the reply. The judgment appealed from was then entered.
The pleadings in this case are so confused and confusing that it is impossible for us to arrive at a decision in respect to the correctness of the Chancellor’s judgment in sustaining a demurrer to the petition as amended. At the time judgment was entered the Chancellor should have required the parties to reform the pleadings so that the cause of action would be set out in a petition, the defense in an answer, and denial of the affirm
The judgment is reversed and remanded for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.