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A decision out of the Eleventh District Court of Appeals of Ohio, Mong v. Kovach Holdings, LLC, 2013-Ohio-882 (Ohio 11th Dist. March 11, 2013), represents a cautionary reminder that parties should carefully review the language of contracts they enter, especially the essential terms of the document, and especially contracts that convey away property rights. That is particularly true when a party parts with property rights set forth in warranty deeds. My colleague Jeff Fort blogged about this recently and asked me to add my thoughts.

In Mong v. Kovach Holdings, the plaintiff, Joseph Mong, sold approximately 70 acres of land near Warren, Ohio, he had recently acquired from Alice McMenamin to Defendant Kovach Holdings at auction. Mr. Mong apparently intended to reserve to himself the oil and gas rights associated with the property. According to Mr. Mong, the auctioneer informed the prospective purchasers of that reservation immediately preceding and subsequent to the auction. The auctioneer confirmed that he did so in a following affidavit. The purchaser of the property, Kovach Holdings, denied that that the auctioneer described any such limitations or reservations. The property sold for $245,300.

The parties shortly thereafter executed a standard purchase agreement, but which included the following handwritten language: “Gas + oil Royalty Reserved by Present owner.” Mr. Mong argued this language revealed that the oil and gas rights were not a part of the sale to Kovach Holdings. The problem, for Mr. Mong at least, was that the subsequent warranty deed by which Mr. Mong conveyed the property included no comparable language. It did, however, include merger language.