{"id":916,"date":"2026-10-11T15:21:37","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T15:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/?p=916"},"modified":"2026-10-11T15:21:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T15:21:37","slug":"deeds-are-subject-to-reformation-when-there-is-a-mutual-mistake-and-they-fail-to-accurately-reflect-the-intent-of-the-parties-who-created-the-easement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/2026\/10\/11\/deeds-are-subject-to-reformation-when-there-is-a-mutual-mistake-and-they-fail-to-accurately-reflect-the-intent-of-the-parties-who-created-the-easement\/","title":{"rendered":"Deeds are subject to reformation when there is a mutual mistake and they fail to accurately reflect the intent of the parties who created the easement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A deed created an easement in favor of the grantee to access a river from the dominant estate but it was mistakenly worded so that it did not extend all the way to the river. The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed that the easement language in the deed could be reformed to achieve the intent of both parties, especially when subsequent conduct had shown mutual agreement to allow access to the river. <a href=\"https:\/\/cases.justia.com\/iowa\/supreme-court\/2026-23-1845.pdf?ts=1767971248\">Fink v. Lawson<\/a><em>,<\/em> 30 N.W.3d 582 (Iowa 2026). The court explained that the key is to achieve the grantor\u2019s intent although it also focused on the intent of both parties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A deed created an easement in favor of the grantee to access a river from the dominant estate but it was mistakenly worded so that it did not extend all the way to the river. The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed that the easement language in the deed could be reformed to achieve the intent of both parties, especially when subsequent conduct had shown mutual agreement to allow access to the river. Fink v. Lawson, 30 N.W.3d 582 (Iowa 2026). The court explained that the key is to achieve the grantor\u2019s intent although it also focused on the intent of both parties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,10,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-easements","category-real-estate-transactions","category-title-issues"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"jsinger","author_link":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/author\/jsinger\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":917,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions\/917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}