Estate of Nelson v. Rice
Arizona Court of Appeals
12 P.3d 238 (Ariz. App. 2000)
The Estate's (plaintiff's) art appraiser told the estate's representatives she would flag any fine art she noticed for independent appraisal but reported none, and the estate proceeded to sell two oil paintings for $60 at an estate sale to Rice (defendant), a non-expert who nonetheless compared the signatures to a reference book and had Christie's authenticate them as genuine works worth nearly $912,000 in net sale proceeds; the Estate sued to rescind the sale for mutual mistake and unconscionability, and the trial court granted Rice summary judgment.
Whether a party bears the risk of mistake when he is aware, at the time the contract is made, that he has only limited knowledge with respect to the facts to which the mistake relates, but treats his limited knowledge as sufficient.