Opinion ID: 6976547
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Unilateral and mutual mistake of fact

Text: The gravamen of these claims was that both parties proceeded to- contract under material mistakes of fact respecting the performance predictions made by DLJ in the Brochures and Portfolio. The district court dismissed both claims on various grounds, including that the remedy sought, rescission, was not available in view of IOF’s sale of all the CMOs at issue. Without disavowing any of the district court’s stated grounds for decision, we affirm its dismissal of these claims for the following reason. As a basic proposition, a contract is made voidable by either unilateral or mutual mistake only where the asserted mistake concerns “a basic assumption on which the contract was made.” Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 152 (mutual mistake); id. § 153 (unilateral mistake). Given the fact that, as earlier noted, the contract here in issue expressly disavowed any legal effect for representations made in the Brochures or Portfolio, they could not have constituted “basic assumptions” as to which contract-avoiding mistakes could have been made — either by IOF unilaterally or by the parties mutually. The district court properly dismissed these claims.