Court Opinion

ID: 9674601
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:31:36.557967+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:28.454414
License: Public Domain

WALKER, Justice
(concurring).
In my opinion the trial court erred in instructing a verdict for respondent, and I concur in the opinion and judgment of the Court. As pointed out in the Court’s opinion, the evidence does not establish mutual mistake as a matter of law. Respondent testified that she understood the contract to mean that she was to receive 180 monthly installments of $250.00 each on the principal of the note and, in addition thereto, interest at the rate of six per cent per an-num. It does not appear that petitioners were laboring under the same misapprehension, but a reading of the statement of facts suggests to me that they may have been aware of respondent’s mistake. As pointed out in Warren v. Osborne, Tex.Civ.App., 154 S.W.2d 944 (wr. ref. w.m.), knowledge of one party of the other’s mistake regarding the expression of the contract is equivalent to mutual mistake. See also Automobile Ins. Co. v. United Elec. Serv. Co., Tex.Civ.App., 275 S.W.2d 833 (wr. ref. n.r.e.) ; 3 Pomeroy, Equity Jurisprudence, 5th ed. 1941, § 870a; 13 Williston on Contracts, 3rd ed. 1970, §§ 1548, 1557; Restatement, Contracts, §§ 71, 505. If respondent establishes on a retrial of the case, by findings supported by the evidence, that she was mistaken as she claims and that petitioners knew of her mistake when the contract was signed, it seems to *400me that equity should require a rescission of the contract unless petitioners wish to acquiesce in a reformation to carry out the agreement as intended and understood by respondent.