Mutual Mistake

Mutual Mistake

An error of both parties to a contract, whereby each operates under the identical misconception concerning a past or existing material fact.

For example, a customer goes to the sample room of an interior decorator to select a carpet and asks the clerk to show him a navy carpet, which he subsequently purchases and takes with him. The sales slip notes that the carpet purchased is navy. When, upon examining the carpet in daylight, the customer discovers that it is black, not navy as he thought when he bought it, a mutual mistake would have occurred, since both the seller and buyer were in error concerning the correct color of the carpet sold. Since there had never been a true and complete meeting of the minds, no mutual assent was actually arrived at, and the buyer would be entitled to return the carpet and obtain a full refund.

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References in classic literature ?
Small wonder we had conversed at cross-purposes; the only wonder was that we had not discovered our mutual mistake. How the other man would have laughed!
View in context
"Further, the side agreement was not invalid because there was a mutual mistake subject to reformation.
Contract - Parol evidence rule - Mutual mistake
The church said it and Barbstan made a "substantial and material mutual mistake" concerning the federal government's option to buy the property.
Church Sale
Childers discovered this in September 2017 and filed a warrant in debt in general district court, seeking to recover the $17,551 she'd paid for the plots on grounds of fraud and/or mutual mistake. The general district court dismissed the warrant, and Childers has appealed.<br />Separate funereal entities<br />First, Woodlawn Funeral is not a proper defendant under the Virginia Consumer Protection Act.
Va. Cir.: Wrong burial plot purchase caused by mistake, not fraud
706.02(1) (2015-16), and, as a result, there is no legal basis for reformation; (2) summary judgment was inappropriate because there are outstanding issues of material fact regarding mutual mistake; and (3) the court should have stricken the affidavit of Savannah Witte because it was not based on personal knowledge and contained hearsay.
Foreclosure
I am not here speaking of the defense of mental incapacity; rather, the cases I refer to turn on misunderstanding, mutual mistake, and conscious ignorance.
The Law of Confusion: An Examination of Misunderstanding, Mistake, and Ignorance in Contract Law
Posner (2011) develops separate conclusions in addressing the question of mutual mistake in Sherwood v.
The consequences of overstating fuel economy
Taxpayers are denied a discharge of federal taxes in bankruptcy because they failed to timely file Forms 1040; the IRS's assessments are not time-barred after the Tax Court finds mutual mistake and reforms extension agreements to correct a "scrivener's error."
Analysis of and reflections on recent cases and rulings
25, 2014), approached the issue of whether a target stockholder vote regarding a US$4.2 billion buyout should proceed despite a mutual mistake as to price.
Several decisions in 2014 provided important guidelines on structuring transactions
There is thus no mutual mistake between the two parties named in the contract.
Brokers aren't agents of insurers: when an agent goofs on a policy's effective date, who is liable?
Because mutual consent is essential to contract formation, in the event of a mutual mistake California courts typically allow parties to reform a contract to reflect their intended agreement.
California, Delaware, Illinois and New York contractual boilerplate: Same provisions, different results?
doctrines of mutual mistake, unilateral mistake, and duress.
The search for consistency: the interpretation of plea agreements and appeal waivers in the face of breach

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