The deceased had died intestate in 1985, and the administration concluded only lately by the Official Solicitor, who now sought guidance from the court on the administration of the estate, given that he had been party to eight customary polygamous (but lawful) marriages, with associated numbers of children. Judges: Elleray QC J Citations: [2010] EWHC … Continue reading The Official Solicitor To The Senior Courts v Yemoh and Others: ChD 15 Dec 2010
The company found itself unable to fund the pension scheme it had committed itself to. If it sought to pay the money due, the company would have to go into liquidation. It did not meet the minimum funding requirements of the Act. The company proposed a scheme of compromise with the trustees. Held: There was … Continue reading Bradstock Group Pension Scheme Trustees Ltd v Bradstock Group plc and Others: ChD 17 Jun 2002
The district auditor for Poplar Council had surcharged council members for making payments of a minimum wage of andpound;4 a week to their lowest grade of workers. This was notwithstanding that the cost of living had fallen during the year from 176% to 82% above its pre-First World War level. The council was motivated by … Continue reading Roberts v Hopwood: HL 1925
The complainant has requested some information about the meetings of transition trustees and connected data. He received no response. The Commissioner gave British Waterways a number of opportunities to issue an appropriate response and it failed to do so. The Commissioner’s decision is that British Waterways has breached the requirements of section 1(1) in not … Continue reading British Waterways (Decision Notice) FS50419259: ICO 9 Feb 2012
Judges: Gloster, Patten, Floyd LJJ Citations: [2018] EWCA Civ 1082, [2018] WLR(D) 310 Links: Bailii, WLRD Statutes: Trustees Act 1925 Jurisdiction: England and Wales Agency, Torts – Other Updated: 22 April 2022; Ref: scu.616333
The lease contained a break clause. The parties disputed whether the benefit of the clause was personal to the orginal lessee, or whether it touched and concerned the land, and therefore the benefit of it passed with the land. Held: The defendant was entitled to exercise and did validly exercise the break clause. The purpose … Continue reading Harbour Estates Limited v HSBC Bank Plc: ChD 15 Jul 2004
The court was asked whether the conveyance of a farm out of which a tithe rentcharge issued carried with it, by reason of Section 63, the rentcharge itself. Held: The farm and the tithe rentcharge were two separate hereditaments and express words would be necessary to pass the rentcharge. The intention of the 1836 Act … Continue reading Public Trustee v Duchy of Lancaster: CA 1927
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Application to enable a settlement agreement to be made which would compromise and release all tracing and other claims between MF Global UK Limited (MFGUK) as trustee of the trust of client money and the general estate of MFGUK acting by its joint administrators. Held: There was nothing to exclude the statutory power of compromise. … Continue reading MF Global UK Ltd, Re Investment Bank Special Administration Regulations 2011: ChD 4 Jul 2014
The court was asked to pierce the veil of incorporation of a company in the course of ancillary relief proceedings in a divorce. H had failed to co-operate with the court. After a comprehensive review of all the authorities, Munby J said: ‘The common theme running through all the cases in which the court has … Continue reading Ben Hashem v Ali Shayif and Another: FD 22 Sep 2008
An administrator de son tort, who was also a beneficiary, held the estate property on trust, and so could not establish adverse possession against the estate during the period of trusteeship. He held a sufficient interest in the assets already. A delay in the application for the grant did not apply where time had not … Continue reading Earnshaw and Others v Hartley: CA 31 Mar 1999
A school board employed staff to manage a residential school for vulnerable children. The staff committed sexual abuse of the children. The school denied vicarious liability for the acts of the teachers. Held: ‘Vicarious liability is legal responsibility imposed on an employer, although he is himself free from blame, for a tort committed by his … Continue reading Lister and Others v Hesley Hall Ltd: HL 3 May 2001
The applicant challenged the exercise of a power of sale under a mortgage, saying that the mortgagee’s purposes included purposes not those under the mortgage. The parties had been involved in an attempted development of a penthouse. Held: The power was validly exercised. Provided the recovery of the sums for which the security was given … Continue reading Meretz Investments Nv and Another v ACP Ltd and others: ChD 30 Jan 2006
The court upheld a declaration by the trial judge that the claimant was an equitable chargee under an equitable charge of the defendant’s property, notwithstanding that the claimant relied on an oral agreement by the defendant for the grant to the claimant of a charge on the property and which therefore did not comply with … Continue reading Kinane v Mackie-Conteh: CA 1 Feb 2005
The plaintiffs were Indian Chiefs from Canada. They complained that the 1982 Act which granted independence to Canada, had been passed without their consent, which they said was required. They feared the loss of rights embedded by historical treaties. The Attorney General sought the strike out of the claims. Held: The application for a strike … Continue reading Manuel and Others v Attorney-General; Noltcho and Others v Attorney-General: ChD 7 May 1982
The claimant had an equitable charge over the property, and sought a possession order after failures to keep up repayments. The order was sought under the Act, and the claimants asserted that the conditions for the grant of possession were unchanged. Held: Parliament had clearly intended a change. The interests of a chargee ranked alongside … Continue reading Mortgage Corporation Ltd v Shaire and Another: ChD 25 Feb 2000
A covenant on the sale of land for a public house provided that the vendor should not permit the building of licensed premises within half a mile. Held: The covenant operated personally only. The covenants which might be implied by the section to bind successors in title also, could not be implied where the commercial … Continue reading Morrells of Oxford Ltd v Oxford United Football Club Ltd and Others: CA 21 Jul 2000
A former partner in a firm could not set off sums due to him from the former partnership, against sums expended by remaining partners in acting to protect partnership property, and claimed from him. There was insufficient mutuality to enforce the set off. The one claim was by partners but as trustees, and the other … Continue reading Hurst v Bennett and Others In Re A Debtor (No 302 of 1997): CA 16 Feb 2001
The bank appealed against a decision that the simple deposit of deeds with a bank did not take effect as an equitable charge. Held: Depositing deeds with a bank is not sufficient to create a charge over them. The old law as to the creation of an equitable mortgage by deposit of deeds had been … Continue reading United Bank of Kuwait Plc v Sahib and Others: CA 2 Feb 1996
Family money had been placed into a trust to be managed by a bank. It was said that the bank had wrongly advanced money to the daughter allowing her to fritter away large parts of the capital Held: The bank had misunderstood the power of advancement given, and was liable to replace nearly pounds 15,000 … Continue reading Re Pauling’s Settlement Trusts: ChD 1962
The court discussed the duties of a vendor to the property between exchange and completion: ‘These duties and rights [of a purchaser] arise from the contract of sale and it is because of their existence that the vendor is said to be a constructive trustee, or a trustee sub modo, of the estate for the … Continue reading Berkely v Poulett: CA 1977
An assent by personal representatives is ‘the instrument or act whereby a personal representative effectuates a testamentary disposition by transferring the subject-matter of the disposition to the person entitled to it’, and must be in writing even if the assent is by the executors in their own favour as trustees. There had to be a … Continue reading Re King’s Will Trusts, Assheton v Boyne: ChD 1964
The respondent appealed against a finding that the provision which made a loan agreement completely invalid for lack of compliance with the 1974 Act was itself invalid under the Human Rights Act since it deprived the respondent lender of its property rights. It was also argued that it was not possible to make a declaration … Continue reading Wilson v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry; Wilson v First County Trust Ltd (No 2): HL 10 Jul 2003
Limits to Police Exemption from Liability The claimant, an elderly lady was bowled over and injured when police were chasing a suspect through the streets. As they arrested him they fell over on top of her. She appealed against refusal of her claim in negligence. Held: Her appeal succeeded. It is normally only in a … Continue reading Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police: SC 8 Feb 2018
Registered land was bought with an advance from the plaintiff. The transfer and charge were registered one month later, but in the meantime, the buyer’s parents moved in. When the buyer defaulted, his mother resisted possession proceedings, saying that she had an overriding interest through her occupation at the time when the charge was registered. … Continue reading Abbey National Building Society v Cann: HL 29 Mar 1990
Claim by a wife that she has a beneficial interest in a house registered in the sole name of her husband and that her interest has priority over the rights of a bank under a legal charge executed without her knowledge. The case raises a point of importance in the law of registered conveyancing. Shortly … Continue reading Lloyds Bank plc v Rosset: CA 13 May 1988
The defendant tenants, anticipating that the landlord might delay or refuse consent to a subletting entered into a ‘virtual assignment’ of the lease, an assignment in everything but the deed and with no registration. The lease contained a standard form prohibition against assignments or sub-letting. The defendants now appealed against a finding that they were … Continue reading Clarence House Ltd v National Westminster Bank Plc: CA 8 Dec 2009
Security required for Bitcoin claim Two applications for security for costs. The claimant claimed against fifteen overseas residents requiring a re-write of cryotocurrency systems so that he could recover sums he said were due to him in respect of Bitcoin assets which he said have been deleted after presumably being copied by hackers. The defendants … Continue reading Tulip Trading Ltd v Bitcoin Association for BSV and Others: ChD 5 Jan 2022
The wife joined in a charge on the family home to secure her husband’s business borrowings. The husband was found to have misrepresented to her the effect of the deed, and the bank had been aware that she might be reluctant to sign the deed. Held: The charge was not to be enforced. The bank … Continue reading Barclays Bank Plc v O’Brien and Another: HL 21 Oct 1993
Matthews M [2016] EWHC 210 (Ch) Bailii Trustee Act 1925 41 England and Wales Trusts Updated: 12 January 2022; Ref: scu.561516
Minor Irregularity in Break Notice Not Fatal Leases contained clauses allowing the tenant to break the lease by serving not less than six months notice to expire on the third anniversary of the commencement date of the term of the lease. The tenant gave notice to determine the leases on 12th January 1995, although the … Continue reading Mannai Investment Co Ltd v Eagle Star Assurance: HL 21 May 1997
The defendants had charged a property to the claimant bank to secure a guarantee of borrowings. The signatures were not witnessed as required under section 1(3) of the 1989 Act, and there were other misdescriptions. The bank sought a declaration as to the validity of the charge, and now applied for summary judgment. Held: Applying … Continue reading Bank of Scotland Plc v Waugh and Others: ChD 21 Jul 2014
Briggs LJ [2014] EWCA Civ 183, [2014] PNLR 420 Bailii Trustee Act 1925 61 England and Wales Citing: Appeal from – Santander UK Plc v RA Legal Solicitors (A Firm) QBD 23-May-2013 The claimant bank said that it had been the subject of a mortgage fraud, and that the defendant solicitors had acted for the … Continue reading Santander UK Plc v RA Legal Solicitors: CA 24 Feb 2014
The court reviewed the conflicting authorities with regard to the creation of trusts and held that the overwhelming preponderance of authority was that, in the absence of any claim for rectification or rescission, provisions in a conveyance declaring that the plaintiff and the defendant were to hold the proceeds of sale of the property ‘upon … Continue reading Goodman v Gallant: CA 30 Oct 1985
A clause in a trust deed may validly excuse trustees from personal liability for even gross negligence. The trustee was exempted from liability for loss or damage ‘unless such loss or damage shall be caused by his own actual fraud’. Held: The trustee was under no liability in absence of any dishonest intention. Millett LJ … Continue reading Armitage v Nurse; etc: CA 19 Mar 1997
The land owners sought relief from possession orders made under mortgages given in equity release schemes: ‘If the purchaser raises all or part of the purchase price on mortgage, and then defaults, the issue arises whether the mortgagee’s right to possession has priority over, or is subject to, any entitlement of the vendor to continue … Continue reading Cook v The Mortgage Business Plc: CA 24 Jan 2012
Approprietary remedy against Fraudulent Agent The Court was asked whether a bribe or secret commission received by an agent is held by the agent on trust for his principal, or whether the principal merely has a claim for equitable compensation in a sum equal to the value of the bribe or commission. Held: The appeal … Continue reading FHR European Ventures Llp and Others v Cedar Capital Partners Llc: SC 16 Jul 2014
The appellant challenged a sale and rent back transaction. He said that the proposed purchaser had misrepresented the transaction to them. The Court was asked s whether the home owners had interests whose priority was protected by virtue of section 29(2)(a)(ii) of, and Schedule 3, paragraph 2, to the Land Registration Act 2002. Held: The … Continue reading Scott v Southern Pacific Mortgages Ltd and Others: SC 22 Oct 2014
The taxpayer imported swimwear for sale. The respondent had incorrectly indicated that such swimwear had one classification. The claimant sought to prevent the respondent reclassifying the goods, saying that they had made given binding tariff information. It depended on the proportion of rubber in the suits. The respondent viewed the calculation differently. Held: the commissioners … Continue reading Matalan Retail Ltd v Revenue and Customs: ChD 5 Aug 2009
The trustees proposed establishing a new trust in respect of the share of an estate to which an infant beneficiary had a contingent entitlement. A portion of the trust fund would be allocated to the new trust. Held: This was a lawful exercise of the statutory power of advancement. The new trusts must be read … Continue reading In Re Pilkington’s Will Trusts; Pilkington v Inland Revenue Commissioners: HL 8 Oct 1962
Testing for Mutual Wills The parties disputed whether wills were mutual. The claimants challenged the probate granted to a later will of their deceased mother, saying that her earlier will had been mutual and irrevocable after the death of their father. Held: The claim was established. ‘in my judgment this evidence would establish two agreements … Continue reading Legg and Another v Burton and Others: ChD 11 Aug 2017
Land had been purchased under compulsory purchase powers. It had been subject to restrictive covenants in favour of neighbouring land which would have prevented the development now implemented. The question was how the compensation should be . .
