Deed • Agreement for Sale • Life Estate • Merger Doctrine

In re Trust of Mihordin, PICS Case No. 17-0871 (Pa. Super. May 16, 2107) Gantman, P. J. (27 pages).

Trial court erred in granting reformation of a 1998 deed that allegedly should have referred to a life estate because the evidence was legally insufficient to prove a scrivener's error or mistake necessary to overcome the merger doctrine. Reversed.

Appellees sought to transfer property to their parents. In 1995, they executed a real estate sales agreement which provided that the parents would pay $5,000 per year for the property, parents would receive a deed when the full purchase price was paid and that the property reverted to appellees on the death of the parents. In 1998, a deed transferred the property in fee simple. After the death of the father, mother created an irrevocable trust and deeded the property to the trust. The trust provided that after mother's death, any remaining income or corpus of the trust went to her two daughters equally and named both daughters as co-trustees. After mother died, appellees sought to have the 1998 deed reformed to reflect their ownership of the property via reversionary interest, asserting a scrivener's error or mistake and the intent of the parties in the 1995 agreement. The trial court granted the petition and ordered the deed reformed. Appellant appealed.