The Court held that vendors who signed a property sale contract without reading it were bound by the stated purchase price of $1,210,000 (rather than the $1,355,000 they believed was agreed), and ordered specific performance in favour of the purchasers. On the facts, the purchasers did not know and had no reason to know of the vendors' mistake as to price, so the Taylor v Johnson test for rescission for unilateral mistake was not satisfied. The claims for rectification, estoppel, and misleading or deceptive conduct under the ACL all failed because there was no common intention for the higher price and no deliberate conduct by the purchasers to inhibit discovery of the error. The Court also left open whether a private residential property sale between individuals constitutes conduct 'in trade or commerce' for ACL purposes.
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