9 California Legal Forms--Transaction Guide § 23.13

Summary

• [1] Basic Requirement

  The consent of the parties to a contract is essential to the existence of the contract and must be free, mutual, and communicated by each party to the other [Civ. Code §§ 1550, 1565]. Consent is not free if it is obtained through duress, menace, actual fraud, constructive fraud, undue influence, or a mistake of fact or law [Civ. Code § 1567; see Civ. Code § 1565 et seq.].

  The existence of mutual assent is determined by an objective test [Meyer v. Benko (1976) 55 Cal. App. 3d 937, 942, 127 Cal. Rptr. 846] that looks to the reasonable meaning of the parties’ words and acts [see Brant v. California Dairies, Inc. (1935) 4 Cal. 2d 128, 133, 48 P.2d 13]. Mutual assent is usually manifested by the signatures of both parties on the contract itself [Sampson v. Draeger (1927) 88 Cal. App. 105, 108, 262 P. 781]. The execution by both parties of a deposit receipt that contains all the material factors common to a sale of real property indicates the existence of mutual consent ...