Mistake is a very broad subject in contract law and an also an important one as it is used as a legal reason to avoid a contract.
However because the term mistake may be used to describe a wide number of reasons for entering a contract in order for someone to claim it successfully there are certain conditions that need to be fulfilled or else there is a risk of breeding uncertainty into everyday commerce and undermining the foundations of legally binding agreements simply by defining a number of circumstances as mistake and claiming their termination.
As much as uncertainty remains an issue as to the aplication of the mistake as a factor of vitiating a contract, this is reflected in various decisions taken by courts where different outcomes may reached based on simillar fact and thus regard must be had to the conditions that ought to be satisfied before it is claimed as a ground for contract cancellation by someone.
Fortunately the courts have laid out certain criteria that need to be satisfied in order to claim mistske successfully. In the famous case of the House of Lords …….the court required that mistake must fulfill the below criteria:
