Hovenden v Lord Annesley: 1806

Referring to a judgment of Lord Macclesfield on the application of statutory limitation by analogy to claims against trustees for breach of trust, he continued: ‘Now I take it that the position which has been laid down, ‘that trust and fraud are not within the statute,’ is qualified just as he qualifies it here: that is, if a trustee is in possession and does not execute his trust, the possession of the trustees is the possession of the cestui que trust; and if the only circumstance is, that he does not perform his trust, his possession operates nothing as a bar, because his possession is according to his title . . But the question of fraud is of a very different description: that is a case where a person who is in possession by virtue of that fraud, is not, in the ordinary sense of the word, a trustee, but is to be constituted a trustee by a decree of a court of equity, founded on the fraud; and his possession in the meantime is adverse to the title of the person who impeaches the transaction on the ground of fraud.’

Judges:

Lord Redesdale, Lord Chancellor of Ireland

Citations:

(1806) 2 Sch and Lef 607

Cited by:

CitedWilliams v Central Bank of Nigeria SC 19-Feb-2014
Bank not liable for fraud of customer
The appellant sought to make the bank liable for a fraud committed by the Bank’s customer, the appellant saying that the Bank knew or ought to have known of the fraud. The court was asked whether a party liable only as a dishonest assistant was a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Equity

Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.537347