I saw the exception in the subject title of this post this earlier this week while applying the most recent PSU. Of course, the problem had absolutely nothing to do with whether or not the patch was applicable to the particular ORACLE_HOME for which it threw the exception.
Rather, it had to do with the fact that the location where the patch was unzipped was owned by the oracle OS user, but not in a directory executable by the grid OS user. I was using opatch auto, which is run as a root and su’s to each user.
If you ever see this exception, ensure that each user can cd to the directory where you unzipped the patch. The exception thrown by opatch doesn’t show this. Before starting the patch, it’s best to simply su to grid and oracle, respectively, and then ensure each user can cd to