Sec 204

As has been elsewhere said,1 a patent ambiguity may be regarded as subjective, i. e., an ambiguity in the writer's own mind expressing itself imperfectly; while a latent ambiguity is objective, i. e., an ambiguity in the thing described, there being several things answering to the description. So far as concerns the patent ambiguity, obvious mistakes will be corrected by the context.2 Blanks may be filled in from the context,3 and other formal mistakes made good.4 A seal, also, erroneously attached to a partnership note, may in this way be cancelled.5 But when the "words of a document are so defective or ambiguous as to be unmeaning, no evidence can be given to show what the author of the document intended to say,"6 unless it should be proved, as will next be seen, that the words in question were used by a mistake common to both sides, and that by strong and clear proof the real meaning intended by both can be brought out.'