City of Woodstock v. County of Oxford

J.-The appellant was created by 1 Edw. VII. ch. 75, a city. Section 6 of that Act provided as follows:

It became the duty of the parties hereto upon said Act coming into effect to take steps for adjusting by agreement or arbitration all matters affecting their respective interests in respect of the assets in which they might have had a joint interest and of the obligations for the indebtedness due by the county and incurred for the common benefit.

They agreed in writing as to all these things, and as to the current expenses relative to the administration of justice, maintenance of buildings, use of and maintenance of the poor-house and of the registry office for the then next five years.

The appellant alleging, five years afterwards, a discovery of what was patent to everybody who cared to read at the time, viz., of an accumulation of surpluses arising out of annual levies, which might well have been taken into account in this adjustment and charged to the county in reduction of the county debt, before apportioning the share of it to be borne by each, has sued herein to recover what it alleges to have been its share of moneys so levied as to produce such surplus.

It is manifest that the agreement was, as on its face it purports to be, a settlement of the finaheial arrangements between the county and the city, as required by the "Municipal Act."

The "Municipal Act" certainly contemplated that no such outstanding claim should remain unsettled for a year, much less five or six years.

In the absence of fraud or mutual mistake, the agreement must stand as an insuperable barrier to opening up such a matter.

From the day it was duly executed it concluded both parties as to any such outstanding claim unless rescinded or reformed.

There is no case made by the pleadings for rescission, and no case made by the evidence for reformation.

In adjusting matters such as this comprehensive agreement deals with, there is always much to be yielded on each side at every step, and it is looked at in the spirit of compromise by all fair-minded men so engaged.

How can we, or any court, say what the result would have been if the committee room had been placarded with the annual statements shewing all this, now claimed to be a discovery ? The result might have been a trifle less on account of annual contribution of appellant to the debt, and a larger contribution on some of the other things bargained for.

The appeal should be dismissed with costs. Appeal dismissed with costs.