Business Liability for Mistakes

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4. Appropriate management response to the situation to limit legal liability.
Disney can claim that the contract was made in mistake and as such it should not be enforceable:
Mutual or unilateral mistake as to a basic assumption upon which the contract was made.
1. An unintentional error esp. in legal procedure or form that does not indicate bad faith and that commonly warrants excuse or relief by the court (the court's power to revise a judgment because of fraud, mistake, or irregularity) (a clerical mistake) Please note that the webmaster of Disney had not posted the lower figure out of bad faith, fraud or a deliberate irregularity. It falls in the category of clerical mistake.
2. An erroneous belief: as
a. A state of mind that is not in accordance with the facts existing at the time a contract is made and that may be a ground for the rescission or reformation of the contract. When the Webmaster made the posting he did not know that he was making a wrong posting.
b. A misconception at the time of an offense alleged by a defendant.
HOWEVER, DISNEY IS LIKELY TO HAVE A WEAK CASE BECAUSE THIS WAS CLEARLY A CASE OF Unilateral mistake
A unilateral mistake is where only one party to a contract is mistaken as to the terms or subject-matter. The courts will uphold such a contract unless it was determined that the non-mistaken party was aware of the mistake and tried to take advantage of the mistake. In this case the purchasers of the tickets were not aware of the mistake and so the judgment is likely to go in favor of ticket holders.
The leading case on unilateral mistake is Smith v. Hughes (1871).

HOWEVER, DISNEY IS LIKELY TO HAVE A STRONGER CASE IF IT PLEADS THAT THERE IS UNJUST ENRICHMENT IF THE TICKETS ARE SOLD AT $58.
In civil law, unjust enrichment means one party has conferred a benefit upon another party with the expectation he would be compensated for doing so, but has not ...