DISCLAIMER: Any unofficial case summaries below are prepared by the clerk's office
as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.
082335P.pdf 05/11/2009 Thirty and 141 v. Lowe's Home Centers
U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 08-2335
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri - St. Louis
[PUBLISHED] [Gruender, Author, with Smith and Benton, Circuit
Judges]
Civil case - Contracts. Lease was ambiguous as to whether the parties
intended to include two lots in certain restrictions, and the court could
consider parole evidence to interpret the lease; plaintiff's evidence was
sufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact such that a reasonable
fact finder, after making credibility determinations and weighing the
evidence, could find by clear and convincing evidence that the lease was
a preexisting agreement describing the property that the parties intended
to restrict and that parties made a mutual mistake by including the two
lots in the restriction declaration; as a result, the district court erred in
granting defendant's motion for summary judgment, and the matter is
remanded for further proceedings; since the summary judgment is
reversed, the district court's order granting defendant attorneys' fees must
also be reversed.