A MUTUAL MISTAKE IN AN AGREEMENT CONCERNING THE PRICE OF SHARES OF STOCK WARRANTED REFORMATION OF THE CONTRACT (FIRST DEPT).
The First Department, in a full-fledged opinion by Justice Pitt-Burke, determined a mutual mistake in an agreement justified reformation of the contract. The opinion is too detailed to fully summarize here:
… [W]e find that Supreme Court correctly held that the parties intended to include an antidilution provision that provided for the adjustment of both the share price and the number of shares when common stock was issued at a price below plaintiffs’ exercise price, and that, as result of mutual mistake, inadvertently left the word “sentence” and did not change it to the plural, “sentences” in section 3(b) … .Accordingly, upon exercise of their warrants, plaintiffs were entitled to the value of the adjusted number of shares that were owed but not delivered (565,822 shares). Empery Asset Master, Ltd. v AIT Therapeutics, Inc., 2023 NY Slip Op 01585, First Dept 3-23-23
Practice Point: A mutual mistake in a contract allows reformation of the contract to reflect the intent of the parties.
