Seamons v. Wiser , 2020 UT App 33 ( 2020 )


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    2020 UT App 33
    THE UTAH COURT OF APPEALS
    JAMES SEAMONS AND KADI SEAMONS,
    Appellees,
    v.
    LARRY G. WISER AND PATRICIA B. WISER,
    Appellants.
    Opinion
    No. 20180902-CA
    Filed March 5, 2020
    First District Court, Logan Department
    The Honorable Thomas Willmore
    No. 150100401
    Jonathan E. Jenkins, Attorney for Appellants
    Seth J. Tait, Attorney for Appellees
    JUDGE MICHELE M. CHRISTIANSEN FORSTER authored this Opinion,
    in which JUDGES KATE APPLEBY and DIANA HAGEN concurred.
    CHRISTIANSEN FORSTER, Judge:
    ¶1    Larry and Patricia Wiser appeal the district court’s
    reformation of a warranty deed in favor of James and Kadi
    Seamons. We affirm.
    BACKGROUND
    ¶2      Lawrence and Billie Lou Wiser owned and operated a
    dairy farm in Lewiston, Utah, for decades. In 1980, Lawrence
    and Billie Lou subdivided a 219.5-foot-wide parcel of the farm
    (the Wiser Parcel) and conveyed it to their son, Larry, and his
    wife, Patricia, for their home. Immediately east of Larry and
    Patricia’s home was an empty seventy-five-foot-wide lot (the
    Strip), and just east of that was a separate parcel on which
    Lawrence and Billie Lou’s home stood (the Seamons Parcel). See
    Seamons v. Wiser
    infra Appendix. The Strip was included in the 1980 legal
    description of the Wiser Parcel. However, the 1980 legal
    description was inconsistent with the property Larry and
    Patricia were actually using for their home and yard. The
    western side of the Wiser Parcel closely abutted the side of the
    home and excluded a driveway and other improvements to the
    west of the home. The Strip, on the other hand, was being used
    as part of the farm. Thus, in 2000, a series of quitclaim deeds (the
    2000 Deeds) were recorded to shift Larry and Patricia’s property
    approximately thirty-five feet to the west to encompass the
    improved property west of their home. This left a gap of land
    thirty-five feet wide (the Gap) between the Wiser Parcel and the
    Seamons parcel that was recorded in the name of Lawrence and
    Billie Lou’s trust.
    ¶3      By 2006, Lawrence and Billie Lou’s other son, Daniel, was
    running the farm, but he had become tired of dairy farming and
    wanted to get out of the business. So in 2006, Lawrence and
    Billie Lou sold their farm and home to James and Kadi Seamons.
    The warranty deed conveying the property to the Seamonses
    (the Warranty Deed) excluded the Wiser Parcel from the
    Seamonses’ property and described that parcel as including the
    entire Strip. At that time, the Strip, which bordered the rest of
    the farm land on the north side, was being used in the farm
    operations. The Strip was set apart from each home by a fence
    that ran around the north and west sides of Lawrence and Billie
    Lou’s yard, along the south side of the Strip, and then around
    the east, north, and west sides of Larry and Patricia’s yard.
    However, at the time of the sale, Lawrence and Daniel informed
    James Seamons that the eastern boundary of the Wiser Parcel
    was somewhere in the middle of the Strip, and there was a
    survey stake in the middle of the Strip. After purchasing the
    farm, the Seamonses used the entire Strip up until 2010, when
    Larry moved the fence on the east side of his property to the
    middle of the Strip in line with the survey stake, which he
    understood to be the true eastern boundary of the Wiser Parcel.
    From that time forward, the Wisers occupied the western part of
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    the Strip and the Seamonses occupied the Gap property on the
    eastern part of the Strip.
    ¶4     In 2014, the Seamonses commissioned a survey of the
    properties, at which point they learned that the Gap was still
    titled in the name of Lawrence and Billie Lou’s trust. The
    Seamonses asked Lawrence to sign a quitclaim deed transferring
    the Gap to them, based on their understanding at the time of the
    purchase in 2006. But instead, Lawrence transferred the Gap to
    Larry and Patricia. Thereafter, the Seamonses filed suit,
    requesting that the court reform the Warranty Deed to include
    the Gap 1 in the description of their property based on mutual
    mistake. 2
    ¶5     The Wisers moved the court to dismiss the Seamonses’
    suit based on laches and the expiration of the statute of
    limitations. The court declined to rule on the motion at the outset
    but permitted the Wisers to address the factual basis of their
    argument in the course of trial.
    ¶6      The district court held a bench trial in June 2018, and most
    of the evidence was received by proffer. The Seamonses
    proffered the expert testimony of a surveyor (Mr. Hansen) to
    explain the discrepancy between the description of the Wiser
    Parcel used in the 2000 Deeds and the description used in the
    Warranty Deed. He discovered that the Cache County Tax Roll
    records contained “an erroneous legal description” of the Wiser
    Parcel “that did not match the legal description in the chain of
    title for” the Wiser Parcel and that the Warranty Deed used that
    erroneous description rather than the description in the 2000
    1. The Seamonses’ initial complaint requested that the Warranty
    Deed be reformed to include the entire Strip, but they later
    amended the complaint to claim only the Gap.
    2. The Seamonses also raised additional causes of action that
    were dismissed by the court and are not relevant to this appeal.
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    Deeds. The Wisers, on the other hand, proffered expert
    testimony of another surveyor (Mr. Christensen) who would
    testify that the 2000 Deeds were erroneous in failing to include
    the Gap in the legal description of the Wiser Parcel.
    ¶7      Following trial, the district court entered findings of fact
    and conclusions of law in which it found “that based upon the
    proffered testimony of all parties, the Wisers intended to sell and
    the [Seamonses] intended to purchase all the farm and older
    house excluding Larry and Patricia Wiser’s parcel.” It further
    found “that the parties understood that the portions of the Strip
    east of the stake were being purchased by the” Seamonses and
    that “the intent of the parties was to convey . . . the eastern half
    of the Strip[] to the [Seamonses] and to exclude only [the Wiser
    Parcel] which was to remain owned by Larry and Patricia.” The
    court found that the legal description of the Wiser Parcel used in
    the Warranty Deed “does not exist anywhere in the chain of title
    for” the Wiser Parcel and therefore arose from an erroneous
    legal description in the Cache County Tax Roll records. In doing
    so, the court “place[d] great weight on the testimony of Mr.
    Hansen” and observed that the Wisers “did not put forth any
    expert evidence disputing” that testimony. In ruling on the
    question of mutual mistake, the court “place[d] great weight on
    the facts that the [Seamonses] have occupied and used the
    Gap . . . since the time they purchased the farm in 2006 and up to
    the present day” and that “the entire Strip was being used and
    occupied” by Daniel as part of the farm property at the time the
    farm was sold to the Seamonses. The court therefore concluded
    that there was “clear and convincing evidence that the parties
    were mutually mistaken as to the legal description for [the Wiser
    Parcel] contained in the 2006 Warranty Deed which caused the
    Gap and that it was the [parties’] intent to convey the Gap to the
    [Seamonses].”
    ¶8    In light of the mutual mistake, the court ordered that the
    Warranty Deed be reformed to describe the Wiser Parcel in
    accordance with the 2000 Deeds’ description so as to convey the
    Gap to the Seamonses as originally intended. The court’s
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    findings of fact and conclusions of law did not include any
    findings related to the Wisers’ motion to dismiss on laches and
    statute-of-limitations grounds, and the court did not issue a
    ruling on that motion. The Wisers now appeal.
    ISSUES AND STANDARDS OF REVIEW
    ¶9     The Wisers assert that the district court erred in failing to
    rule on their motion to dismiss. Whether the district court made
    “findings of fact on all material issues . . . presents a question of
    law, which we review for correctness.” Vandermeide v. Young,
    
    2013 UT App 31
    , ¶ 7, 
    296 P.3d 787
    .
    ¶10 The Wisers next assert that the court erred in reforming
    the Warranty Deed based on mutual mistake. In reviewing a
    district court’s determination that a deed should be reformed for
    mutual mistake, we review the court’s findings of fact for clear
    error and its conclusions of law for correctness. See Peterson v.
    Pierce, 
    2019 UT App 48
    , ¶ 10, 
    440 P.3d 833
    .
    ¶11 Finally, the Wisers assert that the court erred in
    discounting their proffered expert testimony. We review a
    court’s findings of fact for clear error, Rand v. KOA Campgrounds,
    
    2014 UT App 246
    , ¶ 5, 
    338 P.3d 222
    , and will reverse only if an
    erroneous finding was reasonably likely to have affected the
    outcome of the case, Armed Forces Ins. Exch. v. Harrison, 
    2003 UT 14
    , ¶ 22, 
    70 P.3d 35
    .
    ANALYSIS
    I. The Wisers Waived Their Argument That the Court Failed to
    Rule on Their Motion to Dismiss.
    ¶12 The Wisers first argue that the district court erred in not
    ruling or making findings on the laches and statute-of-
    limitations arguments raised in their motion to dismiss. While it
    is apparent that the court did not rule on these issues, the Wisers
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    waived their challenge to the court’s inaction by failing to bring
    the court’s omission to its attention.
    ¶13 To preserve an issue for appeal, the issue must be raised
    “specifically” and “in such a way as to afford [the district court
    judge] an opportunity to correct the alleged error.” 438 Main St.
    v. Easy Heat, Inc., 
    2004 UT 72
    , ¶ 56, 
    99 P.3d 801
    . Thus, when a
    party claims that the district court failed to rule on a material
    issue, the party must “object to the court’s findings and
    conclusions on this basis” or “file a post-judgment motion asking
    the court to make additional findings.” Vandermeide v. Young,
    
    2013 UT App 31
    , ¶ 9, 
    296 P.3d 787
    . By failing to either object or
    file a post-judgment motion bringing this issue to the district
    court’s attention, the Wisers therefore waived their argument
    regarding the motion to dismiss.
    ¶14 The Wisers argue that they preserved this issue by filing
    their motion to dismiss, addressing the matter at trial, and
    asserting arguments relating to the motion in their trial brief. But
    the issue raised on appeal is not that the court erred in denying
    the Wisers’ motion to dismiss but that it erred in failing to issue
    a ruling on that motion. The Wisers’ actions preserved their
    laches and statute-of-limitations arguments but did not preserve
    their claim that the court failed to rule on those arguments. By
    failing to object or file a post-judgment motion pointing out the
    lack of findings and conclusions relating to the motion to
    dismiss, the Wisers never alerted the district court to the error
    they now allege on appeal. Because the district court was not
    afforded “an opportunity to correct the alleged error”—i.e., its
    failure to rule on the motion to dismiss—the issue was not
    preserved. See 438 Main St., 
    2004 UT 72
    , ¶ 56. Accordingly, we
    decline to address this issue further.
    II. The Court Did Not Err in Reforming the Deed Based on
    Mutual Mistake.
    ¶15 The Wisers next assert that the district court erred in
    reforming the Warranty Deed. They raise two arguments in
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    support of their position. First, they assert that the court could
    not consider extrinsic evidence of intent without first finding
    that the Warranty Deed was ambiguous. They maintain that the
    Warranty Deed was not ambiguous because the explicit
    language of the parcel description included the entire Strip in its
    legal definition of the excluded Wiser Parcel. Second, they assert
    that a number of the court’s factual findings were insufficient to
    support its determination that the Seamonses established mutual
    mistake by clear and convincing evidence. 3 We address each
    argument in turn.
    A.     Parol Evidence May Be Used to Show Mistake of Fact
    Without a Finding of Ambiguity.
    ¶16 The description of the Wiser Parcel included in the
    Warranty Deed explicitly described the entire Strip. However,
    the district court found that this description was the result of the
    parties’ mutual mistake because the Strip was regularly used for
    farm operations both before and after the farm was sold to the
    Seamonses and because the parties intended to convey to the
    Seamonses all the land that was not part of the Wiser Parcel. The
    Wisers assert that the district court erred in considering this
    extrinsic evidence of mutual mistake because the language in the
    Warranty Deed was unambiguous.
    ¶17 In contract interpretation, the parol evidence rule
    excludes extrinsic evidence offered “for the purpose of varying
    or adding to the terms of an integrated contract.” Union Bank v.
    Swenson, 
    707 P.2d 663
    , 665 (Utah 1985) (quotation simplified).
    The same principle applies to interpreting the language of a
    3. The Wisers characterize this argument as a legal challenge to
    the court’s mutual mistake ruling. However, their entire
    argument on this point consists of pointing to alleged
    inconsistencies between the evidence and the court’s findings.
    We therefore construe this issue as a challenge to the sufficiency
    of the evidence and review it for clear error.
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    deed. Neeley v. Kelsch, 
    600 P.2d 979
    , 981 (Utah 1979) (“The
    general rule is that parol evidence may not contradict, vary, or
    add to deeds.”). Thus, in interpreting the language of a contract
    or deed, we resort to extrinsic evidence only if the contract
    language is ambiguous. See Plateau Mining Co. v. Utah Div. of
    State Lands & Forestry, 
    802 P.2d 720
    , 725 (Utah 1990). But in this
    case, the dispute did not involve differences as to how the deed
    should be interpreted. Rather, the Seamonses’ reformation action
    was premised on their argument that the parties made a mutual
    mistake by including the Gap in the Warranty Deed’s legal
    description of the Wiser Parcel.
    ¶18 “[M]utual mistake [is] an exception” to the parol evidence
    rule, and extrinsic evidence may be examined “even if the
    property description is definite and certain.” Neeley, 600 P.2d at
    981; see also, e.g., Jensen v. Manila Corp. of the Church of Jesus Christ
    of Latter-day Saints, 
    565 P.2d 63
    , 64 (Utah 1977) (holding that
    “parol evidence is admissible in an action for reformation[] to
    show the writing did not conform to the intent of the parties”
    and rejecting the contention that “parol evidence must be
    excluded if the description of the property is definite and
    certain”); Janke v. Beckstead, 
    332 P.2d 933
    , 934 (Utah 1958)
    (holding that an ambiguity is not necessary to admission of parol
    evidence where reformation “is sought on the ground of mutual
    mistake or fraud” (citing 45 Am. Jur. Reformation of Instruments
    § 113)); E & H Land Ltd. v. Farmington City, 
    2014 UT App 237
    ,
    ¶ 25, 
    336 P.3d 1077
     (holding that extrinsic evidence is admissible
    to show mutual mistake); Vandermeide v. Young, 
    2013 UT App 31
    ,
    ¶ 12, 
    296 P.3d 787
     (explaining that when mutual mistake is at
    issue, “extrinsic evidence is admissible to assist in determining
    the intent of the parties” (quotation simplified)); Wolf Mountain
    Resorts, LC v. ASC Utah, Inc., 
    2011 UT App 425
    , ¶ 11, 
    268 P.3d 872
    (“In an exception to the general rule disallowing parol evidence
    to interpret contracts, parol evidence is admissible to
    demonstrate that a mutual mistake resulted in a document
    which does not accurately reflect the intent of the parties.”
    (quotation simplified)). But see Percival v. Cooper, 
    525 P.2d 41
    , 42
    (Utah 1974) (“Where the description of premises conveyed in a
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    deed is definite, certain, and unambiguous, extrinsic evidence
    cannot be introduced to show that it was the intention of the
    grantor to convey a different tract or that he did not intend to
    convey all of the land described.”). 4 Thus, the district court did
    not err in examining extrinsic evidence presented by the
    Seamonses in support of their mutual-mistake argument.
    B.     The Court’s Findings Were Not Clearly Erroneous.
    ¶19 The Wisers next assert that the district court erred in
    concluding that the Warranty Deed should be reformed due to
    the parties’ mutual mistake. “Reformation of a deed is
    appropriate where the terms of the written instrument are
    mistaken in that they do not show the true intent of the
    agreement between the parties.” Vandermeide v. Young, 
    2013 UT App 31
    , ¶ 12, 
    296 P.3d 787
     (quotation simplified). When a party
    seeks to reform a deed based on mutual mistake, that party “has
    the burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that
    there was a mutual mistake of fact.” 
    Id.
     (quotation simplified).
    The Wisers assert that the Seamonses did not meet their burden
    and contest two of the district court’s findings of fact: that the
    Strip was being used for farming at the time of the sale and that
    the parties intended for the Gap to be included in the 2006 sale.
    4. Percival v. Cooper, 
    525 P.2d 41
     (Utah 1974), is the only case the
    Wisers cite in support of their contention that an ambiguity in
    the deed must be found before parol evidence of intent may be
    used to show mutual mistake. But the Percival holding was
    directly contradicted by the supreme court’s holding in Jensen v.
    Manila Corp. of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 
    565 P.2d 63
     (Utah 1977), three years later, see 
    id. at 64
     (explicitly
    rejecting the contention that “parol evidence must be excluded if
    the description of the property is definite and certain”); was
    inconsistent with well-settled law even at the time it was issued,
    see Percival, 525 P.2d at 43 & n.1 (Crockett, J., dissenting); and has
    never been relied on or even cited in any other Utah case.
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    ¶20 We will not set aside a court’s factual findings unless they
    are clearly erroneous. See id. ¶ 14. “To make such a showing, a
    party challenging a finding of fact must demonstrate that the
    evidence is legally insufficient to support the finding when
    viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the court
    below.” Austin v. Bingham, 
    2014 UT App 15
    , ¶ 12, 
    319 P.3d 738
    (quotation simplified). In other words, the party “must do more
    than merely reargue the evidence supporting his or her
    position.” 
    Id.
     (quotation simplified).
    ¶21 In challenging the district court’s findings, the Wisers
    have not met their burden of persuasion on appeal. Rather than
    confronting the evidence supporting the district court’s findings,
    the Wisers have presented “carefully selected facts and excerpts
    from the record in support” of their position and point to
    evidence that could potentially support different findings. See 
    id.
    (quotation simplified).
    ¶22 For example, in challenging the court’s finding that
    Daniel Wiser was using the Strip for farm operations at the time
    of the sale, they point to deposition testimony in which Daniel
    stated that he did not remember exactly what the Strip was
    being used for at the time of the sale. But Daniel also testified,
    “When I had sold it to [James Seamons], . . . I had young heifers
    running out there . . . . I don’t remember exactly what I was
    doing to that strip right then or—well, I know I was running
    heifers through this end, so I kind of used it as a pasture
    somewhat.” And while some of his testimony was equivocal
    regarding the exact use of the Strip at that time, he clearly
    testified that the Strip was used for farming while he was
    managing the farm, and he never suggested that the Strip was
    being put to any other use at the time the Seamonses purchased
    the farm. Thus, this evidence supports the district court’s finding
    that the Strip was being used in farm operations at the time of
    the sale.
    ¶23 Similarly, in challenging the court’s finding of intent, the
    Wisers ignore the proffered evidence that supports the district
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    court’s finding and reargue the facts by pointing to evidence
    that supports their position. For example, they challenge
    the court’s finding that “James Seamons understood from
    his conversations with Daniel and Lawrence Wiser that the
    eastern boundary of [the Wiser Parcel] was approximately
    located in the middle of the strip” by citing Lawrence Wiser’s
    denial that this conversation occurred. But the Seamonses
    proffered testimony from James Seamons that this conversation
    did occur. It was the district court’s prerogative to weigh this
    conflicting evidence. See Lunt v. Lance, 
    2008 UT App 192
    , ¶ 19,
    
    186 P.3d 978
    . The fact that there was evidence contradicting the
    court’s finding does not make the finding clearly erroneous
    when sufficient evidence has been submitted that supports the
    court’s finding. See Hale v. Big H Constr., Inc., 
    2012 UT App 283
    ,
    ¶ 60, 
    288 P.3d 1046
     (“When . . . there is conflicting evidence, we
    defer to the trial court as the factfinder. The existence of
    conflicting evidence does not give rise to clear error as long as
    evidence supports the trial court’s decision.” (quotation
    simplified)).
    ¶24 The Wisers also assert that a finding that the parties
    intended for the Gap to be included in the purchase was
    inconsistent with the Seamonses’ own representations because
    when they first filed suit, the Seamonses represented that they
    believed they were entitled to the entire Strip and then later
    limited their claim to only the Gap property. But the Seamonses
    do not assert that the parties intended to include any particular
    portion of the Strip in the sale of the farm. Rather, they contend
    that they intended to include all the property that was not part of
    the Wiser Parcel in the sale and that they understood that
    property to include some portion of the Strip. The fact that the
    Seamonses first asserted they owned the entire Strip and later
    asserted they owned only the Gap is not inconsistent with
    mutual mistake as to what was actually included in the Wiser
    Parcel. The Seamonses may not have realized that the western
    part of the Strip was legally part of the Wiser Parcel, but that is
    not inconsistent with a belief that they had purchased everything
    that was not part of the Wiser Parcel.
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    ¶25 In short, the Wisers have failed to establish that any of the
    court’s factual findings regarding mutual mistake were clearly
    erroneous. We therefore defer to the court’s findings of fact.
    III. The Court Did Not Exceed Its Discretion in Discounting the
    Wisers’ Proffered Expert Testimony.
    ¶26 Finally, the Wisers take issue with the district court’s
    finding that they “did not put forth any expert evidence
    disputing Mr. Hansen’s testimony and conclusions.” 5 The Wisers
    assert that this finding is clearly erroneous because they
    proffered expert testimony from Mr. Christensen indicating that
    “there is no error in the 2006 warranty deed.”
    ¶27 Read in context, however, this finding is not clearly
    erroneous, because it appears to be limited to Mr. Hansen’s
    testimony and conclusions regarding the “creation of the Gap.”
    The full finding reads,
    The Court heard testimony concerning the creation of
    the Gap from Clint Hansen, a licensed surveyor.
    The Court places great weight on the testimony of
    Mr. Hansen and the Court notes that [the Wisers]
    did not put forth any expert evidence disputing
    Mr. Hansen’s testimony and conclusions. The
    Court finds that the Gap was caused because of an
    error in the legal description for [the Wiser Parcel]
    that was introduced into the legal description
    noted on the Cache County Tax Roll for [the Wiser
    5. The Wisers variously characterize their argument as a
    challenge to the accuracy of the factual finding and a challenge
    to the adequacy of the court’s findings. To the extent that the
    Wisers challenge the adequacy of the findings, we do not
    address their argument because they did not raise this argument
    before the district court and it is therefore not preserved. See 438
    Main St. v. Easy Heat, Inc., 
    2004 UT 72
    , ¶¶ 50–51, 
    99 P.3d 801
    .
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    Parcel] in the year 2000. Mr. Hansen discovered
    that in 2000 the Defendants executed and recorded
    a series of deeds which shifted the location of [the
    Wiser Parcel] approximately 35 feet to the west (the
    “2000 Adjustment”). The Cache County Tax Roll
    records adopted an erroneous legal description out
    of the 2000 Adjustment that did not match the legal
    description in the chain of title for [the Wiser
    Parcel].
    (Emphasis added.) This finding explicitly states that it concerns
    Mr. Hansen’s testimony about how the Gap was created, and the
    entire paragraph focuses on this specific aspect of Mr. Hansen’s
    testimony. Taken out of this context, the court’s finding about
    the Wisers’ lack of expert testimony could be read as erroneous.
    But read in this context, we agree with the Seamonses that the
    court appears to be commenting on the lack of “expert evidence
    disputing Mr. Hansen’s testimony and conclusions” “concerning
    the creation of the Gap.” (Emphasis added.) Although the Wisers
    did assert that Mr. Christensen would testify that it was the 2000
    Deeds, rather than the Warranty Deed, that contained an
    erroneous description of the Wiser Parcel, they did not assert
    that Mr. Christensen had a different explanation for how the
    Gap came to be.
    ¶28 But even if we were to accept the Wisers’ assertion that
    the court’s finding was erroneous, the error does not justify
    reversal because it “was sufficiently inconsequential that there is
    no reasonable likelihood that it affected the outcome of the case.”
    Armed Forces Ins. Exch. v. Harrison, 
    2003 UT 14
    , ¶ 22, 
    70 P.3d 35
    .
    Based on all the proffered evidence, the court found that the
    description of the Wiser Parcel in the Warranty Deed was the
    result of mutual mistake. This finding implicitly rejects Mr.
    Christensen’s proffered opinion that there was no error in the
    Warranty Deed. Although the court relied on Mr. Hansen’s
    testimony to explain the Gap, it relied primarily on other
    evidence of the parties’ intent to determine that the Warranty
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    Deed’s inclusion of the Gap in its description of the Wiser Parcel
    was erroneous. Specifically, the court pointed to the Wisers’
    “desire to sell and [the Seamonses’] desire to buy all the farm
    property; [the Seamonses’] farming and use [of] the Gap
    property after the sale; the location of the stake or marker along
    the road; and, [Larry] placing a fence running north from the
    stake.” The Wisers have not explained why they believe there
    was a reasonable likelihood that the court would have made a
    different finding regarding mutual mistake in the absence of the
    allegedly erroneous finding regarding their lack of expert
    testimony. And in light of the other evidence the court found
    persuasive, we are not convinced that any error in this particular
    finding affected the court’s ruling. Thus, even if we agreed that
    the finding was erroneous, remanding the case to correct that
    finding would be a “meaningless exercise.” Uhrhahn Constr.
    & Design, Inc. v. Hopkins, 
    2008 UT App 41
    , ¶ 22, 
    179 P.3d 808
    .
    CONCLUSION
    ¶29 Because the Wisers did not preserve their argument that
    the court failed to rule on their laches and statute-of-limitations
    arguments, we do not consider that argument on appeal. We
    also reject the Wisers’ argument that the court was required to
    find an ambiguity in the Warranty Deed to reform it based on
    mutual mistake. Because the evidence was sufficient to support
    the court’s finding of mutual mistake, we defer to that finding.
    Further, because any error in the court’s finding regarding the
    Wisers’ lack of expert testimony was inconsequential, reversal is
    not justified on that basis. Accordingly, we affirm the court’s
    decision to reform the Warranty Deed.
    20180902-CA                    14                
    2020 UT App 33
    Seamons v. Wiser
    APPENDIX
    Note: These diagrams are not drawn to scale and are provided
    only for illustrative purposes.
    20180902-CA                 15              
    2020 UT App 33