LEFF V. ECKER

State: Florida

Court: Florida Third District Court

Docket No: 06-2175

Case Date: 12/19/2007

Preview:Third District Court of Appeal
State of Florida, July Term, A.D. 2007
Opinion filed December 19, 2007. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing. ________________ No. 3D06-2175 Lower Tribunal No. 03-26871 ________________

Neil Leff and Physicians Financial Consultants Corporation,
Appellants, vs.

Steven Ecker, M.D.,
Appellee.

An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Pedro P. Echarte, Jr., Judge. Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell, P.A., and Stuart L. Cohen, and Michael R. Holt, and Eric L. McAliley, for appellant. Hall, Lamb and Hall, P.A., and Adam S. Hall, and Andrew Hall, for appellee.

Before GREEN, SHEPHERD, and SUAREZ, JJ. PER CURIAM.

Defendants, Neil Leff and Physicians Financial Consultants Corporation, appeal an order denying their renewed motion to enforce settlement agreement. We reverse. We are not persuaded by the plaintiff's argument that mutual mistake allows him to avoid the parties' agreement, reached after a mediation conference. A party may avoid a contract by proving mutual mistake regarding a basic assumption underlying the contract. Rawson v. UMLIC VP, L.L.C., 933 So. 2d 1206, 1210 (Fla. 1st DCA 2006). However, to prevail on this basis the party must also show he did not bear the risk of a mistake. Id. A party to an agreement bears the risk of a mistake when "he is aware, at the time the contract is made, that he has only limited knowledge with respect to the facts to which the mistake relates but treats his limited knowledge as sufficient." Rawson, 933 So. 2d at 1210 (citing

Restatement (Second) of Contracts,

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