448.1-112. Unconscionable agreement or term of contract. - Missouri Statutes

Unconscionable agreement or term of contract.

448.1-112. 1. The court, upon finding as a matter of lawthat a contract or contract clause was unconscionable at the timethe contract was made, may refuse to enforce the contract,enforce the remainder of the contract without the unconscionableclause, or limit the application of any unconscionable clause inorder to avoid an unconscionable result.

2. Whenever it is claimed, or appears to the court, that acontract or any contract clause is or may be unconscionable, theparties, in order to aid the court in making the determination,shall be afforded a reasonable opportunity to present evidence asto:

(1) The commercial setting of the negotiations;

(2) Whether a party has knowingly taken advantage of theinability of the other party to reasonably protect his interestsby reason of physical or mental infirmity, illiteracy, orinability to understand the language of the agreement or similarfactors;

(3) The effect and purpose of the contract or clause; and

(4) If a sale, any gross disparity, at the time ofcontracting, between the amount charged for the real estate andthe value of the real estate measured by the price at whichsimilar real estate was readily obtainable in similartransactions, but a disparity between the contract price and thevalue of the real estate measured by the price at which similarreal estate was readily obtainable in similar transactions doesnot, of itself, render the contract unconscionable.

(L. 1983 H.B. 177)