Clarke v. Lancaster's Lessee

Brent, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The question presented by the first and second bills of exception in this ease, is the admissibility of parol evidence to shoAV that' the deed from Sophia Fitzhugh to Benjamin Lancaster, under which the appellee claims title, is truly located upon the plats. The deed describes the land sued for as beginning “at a rock on the north side of the road from Boons- ²⁰³ borough to Williamsport, near the N. E. corner of the deed from--to John S. Rowland for part of the said Manor, and running from thence, on the north side of said road, north thirty-eight degrees, east twenty-two degrees, south sixty-three degrees, east thirty-fire, south thirty-eight degrees, west twenty-five and one-half, then by a straight line to the beginning, &c.” The object of the evidence offered was to show that where degrees are mentioned in the deed, at the end of the first line of the land, perches should be substituted, and also to show that perches ought to have been inserted at the end of the second and third lines. While the general rule was conceded by the counsel for the appellee, that parol evidence was inadmissible to alter or change a written instrument, it was contended that this deed was so ambiguous in the courses and distances given, that parol evidence must be admitted to explain them.

The effect of the offer is very clearly to our minds not to explain, but to change the language of the deed, and to insert words which it doe-; not contain. If there is any ambiguity, it is a patent one, and the evidence offered, instead of explaining and giving effect to the terms of the deed, varies and contradicts them. “Parol evidence cannot be admitted to contradict or control the language of a deed. But latent ambiguities may bo explained by such evidence.” 3 Wash. on Real Prop., 347. In the case of Newcomer vs. Kline, 11 G. & J., 457 , a bill in equity was filed to insert the word dollars in a single bill which bad been drawn for “ three hundred and ten, for value received.” To this bill the defendant demurred, among other reasons assigned, upon the ground that the complainant had a remedy at law, and could maintain an action upon the single bill by making proper averments in the declaration, stating that the omission of the word dollars was the result of a mistake in writing the single bill, and proving the averments by parol evidence.

The Court, in their opinion, say, “The complainant had not full and adequate remedy at law, and was therefore entitled to the relief which be solicited at the hands ²⁰⁴ of a Court of Equity. * * By mistake and accident, as charged in the bill, to which there was a demurrer, the word “dollars” was omitted, in consequence of which the plaintiff was deprived of the specific security which was intended to be given, and was unable to support his action upon the single bill, in a Court of Law, as a specialty. The principle being well settled, that the consideration of a single bill cannot be inquired into, or a failure of it averred or proved in an action at law. Key vs. Knott, 9 G. & J., 342 . It is therefore inconsistent with the legal attributes of such an instrument, or its cliaracter of conclusiveness, as a specialty, that it should rest partly in writing and partly in parol.

Where the ambiguity is not latent, and raised by extrinsic evidence, but patent or apparent ,on the face of the instrument, parol evidence is not admissible to explain such ambiguity; as where a blank is left for a •devisee’s name in a will, parol evidence' cannot be admitted to show whose name was intended to be inserted. Ros. Ev., 12.” To admit the parol proof, offered in this case to explain and modify the deed before us, would be in direct opposition to the principles here laid down. It would make the deed “rest partly in writing and partly in parol;”