Rectification Flashcards
Monaghan County Council v Vaughan [1948] IR 306
The defendant made a tender for a contract from the plaintiffs, believing that he would be paid a certain sum of money to dispose of debris from a site and would have the use of the material so removed.
The tender and the advertisement were ambiguous in their terms, and the plaintiffs believed the offer to be that he would pay them the money for the use of the material to be removed and they sought rectification on the ground of mistake
Held that, what is material in this case is that the parties were agreed on certain matters and the completed contract did not represent the substance of their agreement – the fact that the defendant saw an error in the rendering of the contract and dishonestly sought to take advantage of it is immaterial.
An erroneous conception of the intended agreement on the part of one of the parties is enough to prevent their being a mutual agreement.
Irish Life Assurance Co Ltd v Dublin Land Securities Ltd [1989] IR 253
Rectification not granted because there was no mutual mistake. Defendant believed the contract was correct. Plaintiff was not clear in communicating.
Griffin J said that “Rectification is concerned with defects in the recording, not in the making of an agreement.”, a statement echoed by Barron J in McD v McD.
Gun v McCarthy; Gun v McCarthy (1883) 13 LR Ir 304
Flanagan J stated that: “Where there being a clear undoubted mistake by one party in reference to a material term of the contract which he entered into with another, and the other party knowingly seeks to avail himself of that, and seeks to bind the other to the mistake, the law of this Court is, that it will not allow such a contract to be binding on the parties, but will give relief against it”.
In some context can apply for rescission but not all.
If material mistake of fundamental term can have relief
A Roberts & Co Ltd v Leicestershire County Council [1961] Ch 555
The court considered the circumstances required for rectification of a contract after a unilateral mistake.
Pennycuick J said: a party is entitled to rectification of a contract upon proof that he believed a particular term to be included in the contract, and that the other party concluded the contract with the omission or a variation of that term in the knowledge that the first party believed the term to be included
