Mistake of fact is a mistake, not caused by the neglect of a legal duty on the part of the person making the mistake, and consisting in --- 1. An unconscious ignorance or forgetfulness of a fact past or present, material to the contract; or, 2. Belief in the present existence of a thing material to the contract, which does not exist, or in the past existence of such a thing, which has not existed. SOURCE: CC § 1577.
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