Nourse LJ said of the Condon Case: ‘The principle of cases such as those is that the court will direct a trustee in bankruptcy not to insist on his full legal rights if it would be unacceptable for him to do so. The principle is subject to qualifications, of which the most important is that the court will only take that course in a case where it would be dishonest or shabby or the like for the trustee to insist on his full legal rights.’
Lawton LJ said: ‘Various words have been used in the cases to indicate the kind of conduct to which the principle of Ex p James, Re Condon (1874) LR 9 Ch App 609 may apply, such as ‘a point of moral justice’, ‘dishonest’, ‘dishonourable’, ‘unworthy’, ‘unfair’ and ‘shabby’. Those words are not words of art at all. They are words of ordinary English usage and the concept behind them is, as I understand the cases, that an officer of the court, such as a trustee in bankruptcy or a liquidator, should not behave in a way which a reasonable member of the public, knowing all the facts, would regard as either dishonest, unfair or dishonourable.’
Judges:
Lawton LJ, Nourse LJ
Citations:
[1987] BCLC 257
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – In re Condon, Ex parte James 1874
The Trustee in bankruptcy has relevant duties as the Trustee as an officer of the Court. Such a Trustee would not engage in conduct which could be seen to involve an unfair use of that position, and ‘where it would be unfair’ for a trustee in . .
Cited by:
Cited – Flightline Ltd v Edwards and Another ChD 2-Aug-2002
Money had been paid into an account in the joint names of the parties’ solicitors in order to purchase the release of the applicants from an asset freezing order. The respondent company was in liquidation. It was argued that the payment of funds . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Commercial
Updated: 11 June 2022; Ref: scu.182274