Opinion ID: 2345453
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Voluntary Payment Defense

Text: Finally, Appellants argue that the voluntary payment defense bars recovery on Appellee's breach of contract claim. They assert that Appellee voluntarily paid rate M for copies from electronic records and that Appellee's failure to know the law does not entitle it to a refund. Under the voluntary payment defense, one who has voluntarily paid money with full knowledge, or means of knowledge of all the facts, without any fraud having been practiced upon him . . . cannot recover it back by reason of the payment having been made under a mistake or error as to the applicable rules of law. In re Kennedy's Estate, 321 Pa. 225, 183 A. 798, 802 (1936). Appellants misstate Appellee's breach of contract claim. In the complaint, Appellee claimed that Appellants breached the parties' contract by charging microfilm rates for copies from electronic records. Appellee did not discover the overcharge because Appellants misrepresented the source of the copies in the invoices. Appellee's claim did not stem, as Appellants suggest, from its ignorance of the MRA's rates for copies from electronic records. In other words, Appellee did not pay the invoices under a mistake of law so the voluntary payment defense does not apply. We hold that Appellants have not raised any impediment, under the statute or by contract, to prevent Appellee from stating a breach of contract claim against Appellants.