Rectification of a contract, either on the basis of common mistake or, alternatively, on the basis of unilateral mistake, was appropriate where payment terms offered in a tender had been unequivocally accepted but the wrong tender document had mistakenly been incorporated into the contract.
A local authority issued proceedings against a company claiming rectification of a contract on the grounds of common or unilateral mistake. The contract, dated 1 October 2009, concerned the carrying out of waste-recycling using the local authority’s existing facility, for which the company was to make an annual fixed payment.
The wrong document was included in the final formal contract, which differed from the documents in the accepted tender. Coulson J. decided that the local authority’s acceptance of a tender through the formal EU procurement process was a pre-existing agreement by reference to which the final formal contract could be rectified to include the documents from the accepted tender.
Instructed by Anthony Collins Solicitors
Related barristers: Robert Clay
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22 February 2017
