A solicitor (Mr Lincoln) had given undertakings to hold certain leases to the order of the Bank, but did not have them. The court considered enforcement of the undertakings. Pennycuick J said: ‘Prima facie, it is open to Mr Lincoln to obtain that lease by paying off the first mortgage, in which case he would be entitled to require the first mortgagee to hand over the lease to him and he could then hand over the lease in turn to the Bank. There might, of course, be circumstances in which it would be difficult or impossible for him to achieve that result, but there is no evidence before me to show that any such difficulty or impossibility exists, and in the absence of any evidence it seems to me that I ought to proceed on the basis that Mr Lincoln is able to perform this undertaking.’
He went on to say: ‘When one comes to look at the cases it seems that in all of them what happened was that the person to whom the undertaking was given sought from the court an order upon the solicitor to do the act which he had undertaken to do, that being an act which it was within his power to do – for example, the payment of money, the entering of an appearance, or the like. In one case the application was for committal, but that part of the application was stood over, the court making an immediate order on the solicitor to perform the undertaking. It therefore appears that in the exercise of this jurisdiction, what in practice has always been done is that the court, if the circumstances warrant it, makes an order upon the solicitor to do the act which he has undertaken to do. Then if the solicitor disobeys that order, no doubt an application for committal would follow and the order would be made.
No case was cited in which the court made an order for committal upon direct application to commit for breach of the undertaking without having first made an order to perform the undertaking. I do not say that there is no jurisdiction to make such an order, but neither counsel was able to point to a case in which such an order had been made. There is a further difficulty that the court could not, it seems to me, make an order upon a solicitor to do an act except an act which lies in his power to do.’
Judges:
Pennycuick J
Citations:
[1966] 1 WLR 1604
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Thames Valley Housing Association Ltd and Others v Elegant Homes (Guernsey) Ltd and Others ChD 27-Oct-2009
The claimant sought to enforce against the defendant’s solicitors an undertaking given by them. The claimant contracted to buy property subject to a charge in favour of the third defendant bank securing loans over other property. The bank gave no . .
Cited – Coll v Floreat Merchant Banking Ltd and Others QBD 3-Jun-2014
The court was asked whether it was possible to bring contempt proceedings against a solicitor for the breach of an undertaking other than one given to the court. The parties had been employee and employer. On the breakdown of that relationship, the . .
Cited – Coll v Floreat Merchant Banking Ltd and Others QBD 3-Jun-2014
The court was asked whether it was possible to bring contempt proceedings against a solicitor for the breach of an undertaking other than one given to the court. The parties had been employee and employer. On the breakdown of that relationship, the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Legal Professions
Updated: 09 November 2022; Ref: scu.377317
