Friday, February 7, 2014

Filled Under:

Mistake

Mistake
Meaning of mistake [section 20]
A mistake is said to have occurred where the parties intending to do one thing by error do something else. Mistake is "erroneous belief" concerning something.
Classification of Mistake of Law:
(a) Mistake of Indian Law(In sense of penalty): The contract is not voidable because everyone is supposed to know the law of his country. e.g. disobeying traffic rules"
(b) Mistake of Foreign Law(void-ab-initio): A mistake of foreign law is treated as mistake of fact, i.e. the contract is void if both the parties are under a mistake as to a foreign law because one cannot be expected to know the law of other country.

Mistake of fact
Mistake of fact be either Unilateral mistake or Bilateral mistake.
Unilateral mistake [section 22]: The term 'unilateral mistake' means where only one party to the agreement is under a mistake. According to section 22, "A contract is not voidable merely because it was caused by one of the parties to it being under a mistake as to matter of fact."
Bilateral mistake [section 22]: The term 'bilateral mistake' means where both the parties to the agreement are under a mistake. According to section 20, "where both the parties to an agreement are under a mistake as to a matter of fact essential to the agreement, the agreement is void." thus, the following three conditions must be satisfied before declaring a contract void under this section:

    Both the parties must be under a mistake
    Mistake must be of fact but not of law.


According to explanation to section 20. "An erroneous opinion as to the value of the thing which forms the subject matter of agreement is not to be deemed a mistake as to a matter of fact."
Note: Mistake about price is valid.

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