U.S. Bank v. Koenig

In 1906 William and Lizzie Washburn conveyed a parcel of land to Emil Borchardt. County records indicated that the deed identified the Washburns, the grantors, as the parties of the first part, and identified Borchardt, the grantee, as the party of the second part. The deed provided that “said second party reserving and excepting therefrom all coal now or hereafter to be found in said land, also the right and title to the use of such surface ground as may be necessary for mining operations, and the right of access to such reserved and excepted coal for the purposes of exploring, working and removal of the same.” Later, U.S. Bank (plaintiff) became the successor to the Washburns’ interests, and Donald Koenig, Robert Koenig, James Koenig, Eilene Doble, and Joy Person (collectively, the Koenigs) (defendants) became successors in interest to 95 percent of the interests acquired by Borchardt. U.S. Bank brought a quiet-title action against the Koenigs, seeking a judgment that it was entitled to all the coal. U.S. Bank argued that the deed’s reservation of the coal to Borchardt must have been a scrivener’s error, reasoning that the parties could not have intended for said second party to reserve all the coal, because the said second party was the grantee, who could not reserve something from the conveyance that he did not own. The Koenigs argued that they owned 95 percent of the coal because the warranty deed did not properly reserve the coal to the Washburns, and that there was insufficient evidence to reform the terms of the deed. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the Koenigs, finding that U.S. Bank could not provide sufficient proof of mutual mistake. U.S. Bank appealed.