The Court of Appeal in chancery heard an appeal from the Master of the Rolls from his refusal of the Master of the Rolls to make a declaration in the winding up of the purchaser company. The purchaser had sought a direction that if the balance of the purchase monies were paid with interest it should be relieved from termination of the contract brought about by its not paying the purchase money by the due date. The Lord Justices held that the forfeiture was in the nature of penalty from which the court would relieve. Relief was to be granted, not against the forfeiture of the instalments, but against the forfeiture of the estate under a contract which involved the retention of the purchase money. The Court granted the purchaser, who had been in possession for five years and carried out improvements, further time to pay the second and final instalment of a purchase price on the ground that the clause requiring him to vacate and to forfeit the first instalment for not having paid the second instalment on time, was a ‘penalty’.
Citations:
(1873) LR 8 Ch App 1022
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Approved – Kilmer v The British Columbia Orchard Lands Limited PC 26-Feb-1913
British Columbia . .
Cited – Legione v Hateley 1982
(High Court of Australia) Purchasers of land were put on notice that unless they paid the price by 10th August the contract of sale would be rescinded. On 9th August the purchasers’ solicitor telephoned the vendor’s solicitors and spoke to the . .
Cited – Cavendish Square Holding Bv v Talal El Makdessi; ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis SC 4-Nov-2015
The court reconsidered the law relating to penalty clauses in contracts. The first appeal, Cavendish Square Holding BV v Talal El Makdessi, raised the issue in relation to two clauses in a substantial commercial contract. The second appeal, . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Contract, Equity
Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.593110