Where the evidence demonstrates that a written contract does not express the true intention of the parties, the courts will read the contract as the parties intended it.
A US supreme appeal court found that Harleysville Insurance Company did not have to cover a police officer under a section of their policy covering law enforcement which was included in the policy document by mistake.
An Arkansas community took out a commercial insurance policy with Harleysville. The broker told the insurer that the policy need not include law enforcement coverage because another insurer already insured the community against law enforcement liability. This was acknowledged by Harleysville and a copy of the proposed policy excluded coverage for law enforcement. But when the final policy was issued the company inadvertently failed to exclude coverage for law enforcement. According to Arkansas law, courts “will reform a writing to reflect the parties’ true intent when, by mistake, the parties fail to write down the agreement accurately”. The court deleted the law enforcement section.
The same result would be reached in South Africa applying the doctrine of rectification of contracts. Where the evidence demonstrates that a written contract does not express the true intention of the parties, the courts will read the contract as the parties intended it.
