Beynon Building Corp. v. National Guardian Life Insurance Co.

Beynon Building Corporation (Beynon) (plaintiff) and Rockford Mortgage Company executed a mortgage and a note on October 23, 1964. The mortgage was for $85,000 and the installment note stated that it was payable in 180 monthly installments at $649.60. The interest was 5½ percent. The mortgage and note were assigned to National Guardian Life Insurance Company (National) (defendant). Beynon claims that in 1965, Beynon received a new installment schedule from National indicating that at $649.60 the correct amount of installments would actually be 200 monthly payments. Beynon never confirmed this with National. In September 1979, after 180 payments, Beynon asked to be released from the mortgage. National refused saying that National just realized a mistake had been made and the correct amount for each monthly payment should have been $694.60. Beynon sued asking to be released from the mortgage. National asserted that a mutual mistake had been made. Beynon claimed that National’s mutual mistake defense was barred by the ten-year statute of limitations reasoning that National had knowledge of the mistake in 1965 when National sent Beynon the updated installment schedule and failed to act on that knowledge. National argued that they did not become aware of the mistake until Beynon’s last payment. The trial court held for National reasoning that a mutual mistake had been made and the statute of limitations was not a bar.