Loftus

This is an action in equity to reform a written contract. Judgment went for the defendant, and an appeal is taken upon the judgment-roll alone, without a bill of exceptions. The contract sought to be reformed was the result of the following state of facts: Loftus was the owner of 5,000 shares of stock of a certain mining corporation. Fischer was the owner of a much larger number of shares. Loftus desired to purchase of Fischer 6,800 shares. Fischer claimed that Loftus was already indebted to him in the sum of $5,000. The price agreed upon for the stock was $10,971.80, and no money was to be paid in hand at the time. As a result of these negotiations the following contract was entered into between the parties:

Plaintiff alleges that he was not indebted to defendant in the said sum of $5,000, and that defendant willfully and knowingly misrepresented the facts in reference •thereto; and by his complaint he prays for a decree that he was laboring under a mistake of fact as to such matter, and further prays that the agreement be modified “in so far as the same provided and recited that the plaintiff was or is indebted to the defendant in any other or greater sum than $10,971.80.” He…