Practice point: While a personal guaranty must be in writing, it does not have to be notarized to make it legally binding on the parties. Typographical errors do not render the guaranty unenforceable. Where the only alleged mistake is in the reduction of the agreement to a writing, it is a scrivener's error, and, no matter how the error occurred, it may be corrected without reformation of the agreement.
Student note: In the absence of a claim for reformation, the court may, as a matter of interpretation, carry out the parties' intentions by transposing, rejecting, or supplying words to make the meaning of the contract more clear.
Case: 82-90 Broadway Realty Corp. v. New York Supermarket, Inc., NY Slip Op 07233 (2d Dep't October 18, 2017)
Here is the decision.
