Vickery v. Ritchie

Edward Vickery (plaintiff) contracted with John Ritchie (defendant) to build a Turkish bath house, but the architect's fraud left the two parties with signed contracts specifying different prices -- roughly $34,000 for Vickery, roughly $23,000 for Ritchie -- undiscovered until the project was nearly complete. After the discrepancy came to light, Vickery sued for the roughly $10,500 remaining under his understood contract price; an audit showed Vickery's labor and materials were worth about $33,500 and cost him just under $33,000, while the finished bath house had added only $22,000 to Ritchie's property value. The trial court ruled for Ritchie, and Vickery took exceptions.