Gift of Chattel to be Completed by Delivery
To create a gift, if it be a chattel capable of manual delivery the donor must deliver it to the donee by actually handing it over, or else do some act which in the eye of the law amounts to delivery of possession, as for example handing over some indicia of ownership or the means of obtaining possession.
There cannot be a gift without acceptance by the donee.
Lord Esher MR said as to a gift: ‘It is a transaction consisting of two contemporaneous acts, which at once complete the transaction, so that there is nothing more to be done by either party. The act done by the one is that he gives; the act done by the other is that he accepts. These contemporaneous acts being done, neither party has anything more to do.’
Lord Esher MR
(1890) 25 QBD 57, [1890] UKLawRpKQB 67
Commonlii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Scott v Bridge and Others ChD 25-Nov-2020
Claim to recover money and property said to have been transferred by the claimant to the defendants or one or more of them. The money concerned came from a bank account belonging to the claimant. The property concerned consisted of two . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Contract
Leading Case
Updated: 10 November 2021; Ref: scu.656365