A claim was made by a company to recover money entrusted to its auditor who fraudulently had paid away some of it to a company of which he was a director. Amendments of pleadings for the purpose of determining the real question in controversy between the parties are usually allowed, unless the other party will be seriously prejudiced thereby.
Danckwerts J said: ‘This Act is one which I understand was drafted by a very eminent Chancery lawyer, but nonetheless it is one which gives considerable difficulties of interpretation whenever the court is concerned with its application . . It seems to me that the words ‘in respect of any fraud or fraudulent breach of trust’ may be capable of referring to a case where the action of the plaintiff is based upon the fact that their monies were fraudulently paid away and have reached the hands of an innocent party. That is a possible construction but whether or not it is the right one is not at all clear.’
Judges:
Danckwerts J, Jenkins LJ
Citations:
[1958] 1 WLR 1216, [1958] 3 All ER 540
Cited by:
Cited – Williams v Central Bank of Nigeria QBD 8-Apr-2011
The claimant had been defrauded by a customer of the defendant bank. He brought a claim against the bank, saying that they knew or ought to have known of the fraudster’s activities, and were liable. The Bank denied that the UK courts had . .
Cited – RG Carter Ltd v Clarke CA 1990
Even in an Order 14 application, the court will, on suitable occasions, be prepared to decide complicated and difficult questions of law.
Lord Donaldson MR said: ‘If a judge is satisfied that there are no issues of fact between the parties, it . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Litigation Practice, Limitation
Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.537025