Invalidity of the Contract Due to Error, Fraud and Intimidation
Contracts are legal transactions that create rights and obligations between two or more parties and are formed by mutual acceptance of declarations of intent. Within the framework of freedom of contract, the parties may decide on the terms they wish, provided that they do not violate the law. However, in some cases, the will of the parties may be impaired and contracts that are not based on real and free consent may emerge. In such cases, the invalidity of the contract comes to the fore.
Error, fraud and intimidation constitute the three basic forms of willpower impairment. In this blog post, we will examine these three concepts in detail and discuss the situations that lead to the invalidity of the contract.
Error: Error is when the parties have a wrong opinion about the essential elements of the contract during the establishment of a contract. This misconception may be related to the nature, content, subject, parties or acts of the contract.
In order for the error to lead to the invalidity of the contract, certain conditions must be met. These:
• The error must be fundamental: The error must cover the basic elements of the contract and the parties’ perception of these elements differently must be significant enough to affect the conclusion of the contract.
• The error must be distinguishable: The error must be of a nature that can be easily noticed by a reasonable person.
• Fault must be faultless: The fault must not result from the fault of one of the parties.
Cheating: Cheating is when one party uses deceptive behavior to mislead the other party into accepting the contract. Cheating can occur verbally or in writing.
In order for fraud to lead to the invalidity of the contract, certain conditions must be met. These:
• Deceptive behavior must be intentional: Deceptive behavior must be done intentionally in order to mislead the other party and make him/her accept the contract.
• The deceptive behavior must be effective: The deceptive behavior must be effective in a way that will lead the other party to a wrong conclusion and enable him to accept the contract.
