Frawley v Neill: CA 1 Mar 1999

The modern approach to a laches claim, was not to test the facts against numbers of earlier cases, but to look at the situation as a whole, and to ask whether the delay made it unconscionable to permit the party to assert those rights. Aldous LJ said: ‘In my view, the more modern approach should not require an inquiry as to whether the circumstances can be fitted within the confines of a preconceived formula derived from earlier cases. The inquiry should require a broad approach, directed to ascertaining whether it would in all the circumstances be unconscionable for a party to be permitted to assert his beneficial right. No doubt the circumstances which gave rise to a particular result in decided cases are relevant to the question whether or not it would be conscionable or unconscionable for the relief to be asserted, but each case has to be decided on its facts applying the broad approach.’

Judges:

Aldous, Ward, and Swinton Thomas LJJ

Citations:

Times 05-Apr-1999, Gazette 24-Mar-1999, [1999] EWCA Civ 875, [2000] CP Rep 20

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

CitedWilliams v Greatrex CA 1956
A purchaser agreed to buy land to be laid out in building plots. On payment of a deposit and giving notice, the purchaser was to be entitled to enter onto a particular plot in order to build on it. The arrangement met with difficulties, with the . .

Cited by:

CitedPatel and others v Shah and others CA 15-Feb-2005
The parties entered into a commercial agreement for the sale and purchase of properties.
Held: The claimants had failed to meet their part of the bargain, and had failed to make mortgage payments, leaving the defendants to do so. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Equity

Updated: 19 May 2022; Ref: scu.80671