Evidence Commons^™

Reformation And The Parol Evidence Rule, George E. Palmer

Michigan Law Review

The parol evidence rule of itself is never an obstacle to reformation, provided there is satisfactory evidence of a mistake in integration. If the parties intend to express the terms of a transaction in a writing, which is then to be looked to as the sole repository of those terms, the longstanding tradition of the law courts, described as the parol evidence rule, has been that the writing is controlling. If through mistake the writing failed to express correctly what the parties meant to express, the law courts still regarded the written word as decisive, but it has been recognized …