Top Law Schools

Question:
A contracted with B to paint B's house for 5k with a 2,500 as down payment because the material is of a special kind. B later tells A that is going to pay 1000 now and promises to pay the rest in three days, but expects the work to be done on time. Next day, B finds out that the material only costs 1000 and refuses to pay more than the 1000. They both sue for breach of K.

State's published better answer reads:
Mutual mistake.

Is this really a mutual mistake issue?

Jmari wrote:Question:
A contracted with B to paint B's house for 5k with a 2,500 as down payment because the material is of a special kind. B later tells A that is going to pay 1000 now and promises to pay the rest in three days, but expects the work to be done on time. Next day, B finds out that the material only costs 1000 and refuses to pay more than the 1000. They both sue for breach of K.

State's published better answer reads:
Mutual mistake.

Is this really a mutual mistake issue?

Yes, if they both really believed the material cost that much AND person A didn't have reason to know/did know that it didn't.

I really hope that question did not appear on an actual bar exam. It's horribly written.

Jmari wrote:Question:
A contracted with B to paint B's house for 5k with a 2,500 as down payment because the material is of a special kind. B later tells A that is going to pay 1000 now and promises to pay the rest in three days, but expects the work to be done on time. Next day, B finds out that the material only costs 1000 and refuses to pay more than the 1000. They both sue for breach of K.

State's published better answer reads:
Mutual mistake.

Is this really a mutual mistake issue?

As it is written the question doesn't even make sense. For mutual mistake to apply to would have to be a basic assumption upon which they both based the contract on. I am not getting that here.

Simply mistaking value does not render a contract unenforceable for mutual mistake of material fact.

rpupkin wrote:I really hope that question did not appear on an actual bar exam. It's horribly written.

This is straight from Ohio F2017 contract essay, which I sat for.

Brian_Wildcat wrote:

Jmari wrote:Question:
A contracted with B to paint B's house for 5k with a 2,500 as down payment because the material is of a special kind. B later tells A that is going to pay 1000 now and promises to pay the rest in three days, but expects the work to be done on time. Next day, B finds out that the material only costs 1000 and refuses to pay more than the 1000. They both sue for breach of K.

State's published better answer reads:
Mutual mistake.

Is this really a mutual mistake issue?

As it is written the question doesn't even make sense. For mutual mistake to apply to would have to be a basic assumption upon which they both based the contract on. I am not getting that here.

Simply mistaking value does not render a contract unenforceable for mutual mistake of material fact.

Exactly! I don't see it. This was on the F2017 Ohio bar. The answer made no sense to me. You are more than welcome to look at the published essays. I was shocked when I read the answer.

Jmari wrote:

Brian_Wildcat wrote:

Jmari wrote:Question:
A contracted with B to paint B's house for 5k with a 2,500 as down payment because the material is of a special kind. B later tells A that is going to pay 1000 now and promises to pay the rest in three days, but expects the work to be done on time. Next day, B finds out that the material only costs 1000 and refuses to pay more than the 1000. They both sue for breach of K.

State's published better answer reads:
Mutual mistake.

Is this really a mutual mistake issue?

As it is written the question doesn't even make sense. For mutual mistake to apply to would have to be a basic assumption upon which they both based the contract on. I am not getting that here.

Simply mistaking value does not render a contract unenforceable for mutual mistake of material fact.

Exactly! I don't see it. This was on the F2017 Ohio bar. The answer made no sense to me. You are more than welcome to look at the published essays. I was shocked when I read the answer.

What? This isn't just a value issue; the value materially affects the work itself. My understanding is that mistakes of value normally don't count because they're isolated to the selling of an item (a portrait), not an integral part of a service contract.

With the way the question is worded, I still would not have spotted the issue.

Do they provide the other answer choices?

californiauser wrote:Do they provide the other answer choices?

No, they only provide one "better answer." which they believe is the better out of all of the answers. This was an essay on the exam, not an MBE.