Reading v Attorney General: HL 1 Mar 1951

The applicant had been a sergeant in the army. He had misused army property and his uniform to assist in smuggling operations. After serving his sentence he now sought repayment of the money he had earned.
Held: His claim failed. The money had been earned by his msuse of his official position, and therefore his employer was entitled to keep the money even though it had been earned unlawfully. The soldier owed a fiduciary duty to the Crown, which was an additional ground on which he lost his claim.

Judges:

Viscount Jowitt LC, Lord Porter, Lord Normand, Lord Oaksey

Citations:

[1951] AC 507, [1951] UKHL 1, [1951] 1 All ER 617, [1951] 1 TLR 480, 95 Sol Jo 155

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

CitedWalsh (as executrix of the estate of David G Walsh) and Others v Deloitte & Touche Inc , Trustee of the estate of Bre-X Minerals Limited , a bankrupt PC 17-Dec-2001
(Bahamas) Shares were sold in a mining company whose prices had been buoyed by rumour, but where disclosure of difficulties had not been made, and eventually it became clear that samples had bee fraudulently salted. The company became insolvent, and . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Agency, Armed Forces, Trusts

Updated: 18 November 2022; Ref: scu.180655