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Voidable, in law, is a transaction or action that is valid but may be annulled by one of the parties to the transaction. Voidable is usually used in distinction to void ab initio (or void from the outset) and unenforceable .
A voidable contract, unlike a void contract, is a valid contract which may be either affirmed or rejected at the option of one of the parties. At most, one party to the contract is bound . The unbound party may repudiate (reject) the contract, at which time the contract becomes void .
An unenforceable contract or transaction is one that is valid but one the court will not enforce. Unenforceable is usually used in contradiction to void (or void ab initio ) and voidable . If the parties perform the agreement, it will be valid, but the court will not compel them if they do not.
For example, an agreement between drug dealers and buyers is a void agreement simply because the terms of the contract are illegal. In such a case, neither party can go to court to enforce the contract. A void agreement is void ab initio, i e from the beginning while a voidable contract can be voidable by one or all of the parties.
It was a raw uncut diamond worth hundreds of times the selling price. The contract is not voidable. There was no mistake because neither party knew what the stone was. [5] Conversely, in a case where a person sells a cow for $80 because they think it is infertile and the cow turns out to be pregnant and worth $1000, the contract would be void. [6]
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The term void ab initio, which means "to be treated as invalid from the outset", comes from adding the Latin phrase ab initio (from the beginning) as a qualifier. For example, in many jurisdictions where a person signs a contract under duress, that contract is treated as being void ab initio. The frequent combination "null and void" is a legal ...
It is also possible for a contract to be void if there was a mistake in the identity of the contracting party. An example is in Lewis v Averay [2] where Lord Denning MR held that the contract can only be avoided if the plaintiff can show that, at the time of agreement, the plaintiff believed the other party's identity was of vital importance. A ...