Part II Related Doctrines, 19 Construction and Mistake as a Vitiating Factor

Subject(s):

Construction of contract — Formation of contract — Interpretation of contract — Performance of contract

This chapter discusses mistake as a vitiating factor where there is an otherwise apparently binding contract between two parties. Historically there has been a very close relationship between contractual interpretation and the various doctrines which respond to mistakes in the bargaining process or in the resulting contract. It is clear that there is an intimate connection between the two. Indeed construction was the matrix from which most modern mistake theory sprang. By the middle of the twentieth century mistake appeared to have hardened into a distinct doctrine or perhaps even doctrines, but at the end of the twentieth century construction techniques resumed their earlier prominence in cases of contractual error.