Exam 11: Conduct Invalidating Assent

Which of the following need NOT be proved in order to establish the defense of economic duress?

Historically, courts held that representations of law were statements of fact, but the present trend is to recognize that they have only the effect of statements of opinion.

Actionable fraud would be likely to be based on falsity of:

Mistake by failure to read a document is grounds to void a contract.

Nonfraudulent representation is made without scienter.

For a misrepresentation to be material, it must be likely to induce a reasonable person to manifest assent or the maker must know that it would be likely to induce the recipient to do so.

Fred is a concert violinist who is scheduled to perform at Carnegie Hall for the first time. He buys what he is told is a Stradivarius violin from a well-known, reputable dealer in quality violins, and he pays the going rate for a Stradivarius. He later learns the violin is an imitation, although it is such a good imitation that even the dealer thought it was authentic. In this case:

Tommy's parents died in a plane crash and he went to live with his guardian, Aunt Rose. Rose had a very small house and did not have a separate bedroom and bath for 12-year-old Tommy. She and Tommy decided to use some of his inheritance to pay for an addition to the house. He had some shares of stock transferred into Rose's name so that she could sell them when the money was due to be paid. The stock transfers are:

If the act or threat would affect a person of average strength and intelligence, then and only then will the act constitute duress.

To sustain a case of fraud in the inducement, the injured party must prove that he actually relied upon the false representation.

Stewart entered into a contract with Will to have Will build a 10-unit apartment complex on Elm Street in Randolph County. Unknown to both parties, this land had recently been rezoned and only single-unit dwellings can be constructed.

A party to a contract may be able to avoid the contract if:

The most uncommon type of duress involves the use of physical compulsion.

An act that is contrary to public policy or is morally reprehensible may constitute duress.

When both parties misunderstand the same set of facts relating to a basic assumption on which a contract is made, it is termed:

Jill contracted to purchase Kevin's automobile under the belief that she could sell it at a profit to Linda, but after Jill bought the car, she found out that Linda isn't interested in buying it. Jill:

Sam wants to sell his Golden Retriever to Jordan. Sam tells Jordan that the dog is three years old and that he will point, back, and retrieve. Although the dog is three years old and will point at birds, he will not back (honor another dog's point). Jordan relies on these statements and purchases the bird dog. The buyer has most probably been a victim of:

Alex wants to submit a bid on a city sewer project. He computes the cost, but mistakenly omits the cost of one item. Accordingly, he submits a bid of $430,000 to the city. The next highest bid is $675,000, and the rest of the bids are even higher. The city is happy to have such a low bid, so it accepts Alex's bid and awards him the contract for the job, even though the city engineer is of the opinion the job cannot be done for less than $650,000. In this case:

Rescission is usually permitted where the parties to a contract are both mistaken about a material fact.

Generally, whether or not the parties deal at arm's length does not affect whether silence alone amounts to fraud.