Q&A: Mistaken Transaction in Signing an Agreement
Mistaken Transaction in Signing an Agreement
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Nowadays it is common for people to sign an agreement without reading it all the way through. If it happens that after signing, one of the parties discovers a clause he was not aware of, and had he been aware of it he would have insisted on deleting it from the contract, is this a kind of mistaken transaction that leads to cancellation of the contract? Or perhaps only to cancellation of the clause?
Best regards,
Answer
This leads us to the dispute over the Aprofim ruling that has been raging in recent days around the Israel Railways judgment.
If someone signed a contract without reading all of it, that is entirely his own problem. You signed it — you’re stuck with it.
Discussion on Answer
That is the law of standard-form contracts, which gives protection to the weaker party in an agreement against large corporations. In such a case, the law determines that in a contract containing lots of details, where it is reasonable to assume the customer does not read all of it but relies on there being regulation, he is given protection. But that is an enactment, not part of the core law of contracts. Under contract law, in principle, you are supposed to read the contract you sign, and if you did not read it, that is your problem.
But I assume that you too sign various contracts in your day-to-day life without reading them all the way through (like agreements for opening an email account or getting a credit card or joining a consumer club). And presumably if after signing you discovered that there was an unreasonable clause in the contract, you would not comply with it either (for example, a clause saying that you have to transfer all your property to the other party). And as far as I know, in most countries the legislature also would not enforce such a clause — so apparently there is some logic behind this way of operating, no?