Greene

This case raises the question whether the parol evidence rule bars a party from offering evidence that her signature on an agreement was procured by a misrepresentation over the content of the physical document to be signed. The aggrieved party claims that she agreed to guarantee a single loan and that a bank employee misrepresented on the day of signing that the guaranty agreements at issue related only to that single loan. But although that single loan’s number and amount were specified at the top of the guaranty agreements, the agreements’ fine print defined the “indebtedness” that was to be guaranteed to include “all of Borrower’s liabilities,” which covered four loans. The bank subsequently brought an action against the aggrieved party to recover on all of the borrower’s loans up to the limits of the guarantees. And the trial court sustained the bank’s objections to the aggrieved party’s offer of the bank employee’s misrepresentations pursuant to the parol evidence rule and granted the bank’s motion for summary judgment.

We shall reverse. The parol evidence rule “generally prohibits the introduction of any extrinsic evidence, whether oral or written, to vary, alter…