Can a party rescind a contract where the contract was signed without the consent of the other party?

" ' "[A] party to a contract cannot rescind at his pleasure, but only for some one or more of the causes enumerated in section 1689 of the Civil Code." ' " (Nmsbpcsldhb v. County of Fresno (2007) 152 Cal.App.4th 954, 959.) Section 1689, subdivision (b)(1) authorizes rescission where "the consent of the party rescinding, or of any party jointly contracting with him, was given by mistake." As stated above, this case involves a mistake of fact.

Civil Code section 1577 defines mistake of fact as "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." (Civil Code 1577.) "The doctrine of mistake customarily involves such errors as the nature of the transaction, the identity of the parties, the identity of the things to which the contract relates, or the occurrence of collateral happenings." (Odorizzi v. Bloomfield School Dist. (1966) 246 Cal.App.2d 123, 130.)