Stare

Plaintiff appeals from an adverse judgment in an action to reform a property settlement agreement with her former husband, the defendant, and to enforce the agreement as reformed.

Facts

The agreement in question was signed by both parties on February 21, 1968. It was the culmination of protracted negotiations which had been going on for several years. Both sides were represented by counsel at all times.

In the negotiations both sides apparently agreed that the community property was to be evenly divided. They did not agree, however, on the value of certain items and on the community property status of certain stocks which stood in the husband’s name alone.

These disagreements centered principally on items which, it was understood, were to be retained by the husband.

In particular the wife, Joan, had an idée fixe that certain real property (the Holt property) which she and the husband, Tim, owned as. tenants in common with his brother, was worth $550,000. The husband’s valuation was somewhere between $425,000 and $450,000. Joan had very little evidence on which to base her contention: First, there was a statement by Tim’s parents when they had owned the property that…