Maloney v. Sargisson

Some five months after they acquired the locus, the Maloneys learned that a concrete drain line which emptied into the Quabbin Reservoir ran under the street on which their property fronted. The meaning of that discovery was that their land, as a practical matter, could not be built upon. A Superior Court judge, acting on cross motions for summary judgment, determined that the parties had been mutually mistaken about a fact which was fundamental to the sale of the locus from Mr. Sargisson, the seller, to the Maloneys, and ordered rescission. Whether a mutual mistake of fact occurred is a…