Every contract springs from a legally enforceable agreement between the parties reflecting the identity or meeting of minds, generally referred by the Latin phrase, consensus ad idem. If either or both the parties to the contract err in the understanding of any essential term of the contract, apparently, there would not be any consensus ad idem. To have a blanket rule categorically rendering such agreements unenforceable, may actually trigger more problems than it may aim to solve by the blatant abuse of the rule with impunity. To prevent such abuse of the legal provisions, the common law has evolved some sophisticated set of rules dealing with mistake.
One kind of mistake that give the courts difficulty involves a party who mistakes the kind of contract being signed. Suppose a person signs away the deed to a house, thinking that the document signed was only a guarantee for another person’s debt or an attestation of a will as a witness. Under contract law, in such situations, the
