Explaining that the failure that resulted in the loans going bad was due to a mistake made jointly by both parties and thus not equitably allocatable entirely to one of them. Patrick is as much a victim here as those who loaned him money -- assuming he eventually makes some kind of reasonable settlement for a portion of the principle.
You are making no sense. Are you living in the vicinity of a strong reality distortion field of some kind?
1) you ask me for money,
2) i ask you if you're a reputable, honest member of the society, with a steady income,
3) you say yes,
4) i lend you the money, we sign a contract agreeing on the interest rate and date of return,
5) you gamble 1/3rd of it, waste 1/3rd on hookers and snort the last 1/3rd
6) you fail to return the principal
7) you fail to pay the interest
In the JoelKatz world, that means we're both equally guilty. And it's a "common mistake", whatever that means.
You would find it a more productive use of your time to spend the five minutes it would take to understand what a "common mistake" is rather than showing off your ignorance to the world.
A "common mistake" is when a contract is predicated on a belief that both parties shared without which they would not have entered into the contract and wherein the incorrect belief is not due to significantly greater fault on the part of either party. In essence, the parties made an argument that is about something that does not exist. In that case, it may impossible or inequitable to enforce the contract as agreed.
Simple example: Two parties both believe a truck contains 5,000 pounds of cherries. They make an agreement that one party will buy the 5,000 pounds of cherries in the truck from the other party. Due to a mistake equally attributable by both parties, the truck actually contains 4,500 pounds of cherries. It is now impossible (or inequitable) to enforce the contract as agreed -- would that mean the buyer must put 500 pounds more cherries in the truck? Or would that mean the seller must accept the 4,500 pounds of cherries?