STEEL'S TRUSTEE v BRADLEY HOMES (SCOTLAND) Ltd
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 17 December 1971 |
| Docket Number | No. 6. |
| Date | 17 December 1971 |
| Court | Court of Session (Outer House) |
OUTER HOUSE.
Lord Dunpark.
ContractConstitutionErrorAgreement reduced to writing in unequivocal termsUninduced unilateral error as to date from which interest payableError not known to or suspected by other partyWhether party in error bound.
ContractReductionResulting breach by defenders of contract with third partyAttachment of conditions to decree of reduction to cover defenders' liability.
A seller of heritable property raised an action against the purchasers for specific implement of the contract of sale. Before the proof, the defenders' agents wrote to the pursuer's agents asking them to confirm that the action was to be settled on payment by the defenders of,inter alia, interest on the sum sued for at 10 per cent from 16th March 1971. The pursuer's agents in reply repeated the terms of settlement proposed and confirmed the pursuer's acceptance of them. The partner who wrote the letter of acceptance did so in the erroneous belief that the date from which interest was payable had been agreed to be, and had been stated in both letters as, 16th March 1969. In seeking to reduce the agreement on the ground of his agents' error in accepting the offer of interest from 16th March 1971, the pursuer contended (1) that the agreement was voidable, on the ground that the date stated in the agreement was an error in expression, and (2) that it was void, on the ground of an error as to price which precluded real consent.
Held by Lord Dunpark (Ordinary) (1) that an onerous contract which has been reduced to writing in unequivocal terms is not reducible on the ground that one party has misread a material term, the other party not having contributed to, known of, or had grounds for suspecting, the misreading; (2) that unilateral error as to a price plainly stated in a written contract does not normally give the party in error a right to rescind; and accordingly (3) that the pursuer was not entitled to reduction and the parties were bound to settle the action in terms of the contract constituted by the letters.
Observed that, had the contract been held to be voidable, there would have been no difficulty in imposing upon the grant of decree of reduction such financial conditions as would have covered any liability of the defenders for damages in respect of breach of a contract of sale which they had concluded with a third party.
Authorities considered.
Statement in Gloag on Contract, (2nd ed.) p. 439...
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