Claim by a wife that she has a beneficial interest in a house registered in the sole name of her husband and that her interest has priority over the rights of a bank under a legal charge executed without her knowledge. The case raises a point of importance in the law of registered conveyancing. Shortly stated, the point is whether, to have the protection afforded to overriding interests in respect of registered land, the wife needs to be in actual occupation of the house when the legal charge is executed as distinct from being in actual occupation by the later date on which the bank’s charge is registered in the land registry.
Purchas LJ, Mustill LJ, Nicholls LJ
[1988] EWCA Civ 11, [1989] Ch 350, [1988] 3 All ER 915
Bailii
Land Registration Act 1925 70(1)(g)
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – National Provincial Bank Ltd v Hastings Car Mart Ltd ChD 27-Mar-1963
Cross J set out the nature of overriding interests: ‘Overriding interests are, speaking generally, matters which are not usually shown on title deeds or mentioned in abstracts of title and as to which, in consequence, it is not possible to form a . .
Cited – Weldon v Weldon (No 1) 27-Nov-1883
The duty of the Court to issue an attachment for non-obedience of a decree for restitution of conjugal rights is the same since the Divorce Acts as it was before.
It is not a sufficient compliance by a husband with a decree for restitution of . .
Cited – In re Boyle’s Claim ChD 1961
Mr. Boyle sought compensation in respect of a rectification of the register by removal from his title of land belonging to a neighbour. Since Mr. Boyle’s registered title was subject to overriding interests, he would not have been entitled to . .
Cited – National Provincial Bank Ltd v Hastings Car Mart Ltd CA 1964
The purpose and effect of section 70(1)(g) of the Land Registration Act 1925 was to make applicable to registered land the same rule as previously had been held to apply to unregistered land. (Russell LJ, Dissenting) ‘Nor should the mind be in any . .
Cited – National Provincial Bank v Ainsworth HL 13-May-1965
The respondent stayed on in the family home owned by her husband after he had left, and resisted a possession order sought by the chargee. The husband had charged the house as security for his business debts.
Lord Wilberforce described the . .
Cited – Williams and Glyn’s Bank Ltd v Boland HL 19-Jun-1980
Wife in Occupation had Overriding Interest
The wife had made a substantial financial contribution to the purchase price of the house which was registered only in her husband’s name, and charged to the bank. The bank sought possession. The wife resisted saying that she had an overriding . .
Cited – Barnhart v Greenshields PC 5-Dec-1853
Pemberton Leigh said: ‘With respect to the effect of possession merely, we take the law to be, that if there be a tenant in possession of land, a purchaser is bound by all the equities which the tenant could enforce against the vendor, and that the . .
Cited – Strand Securities Ltd v Caswell CA 2-Feb-1965
The leaving of furniture in a flat or having a key to the flat or making occasional use of it was not enough to constitute actual occupation. Where A permits B to occupy land on B’s own behalf by way of gratuitous licence, A’s capacity as licensor . .
Cited – Gissing v Gissing HL 7-Jul-1970
Evidence Needed to Share Benefical Inerests
The family home had been purchased during the marriage in the name of the husband only. The wife asserted that she had a beneficial interest in it.
Held: The principles apply to any case where a beneficial interest in land is claimed by a . .
Cited – Eves v Eves CA 28-Apr-1975
The couple were unmarried. The female partner had been led by the male partner to believe, when they set up home together, that the property would belong to them jointly. He had had told her that the only reason why the property was to be acquired . .
Cited – Williams and Glyn’s Bank Ltd v Boland CA 1979
Money was raised on mortgage of registered land and paid to a single trustee holding the land on trust for sale, and it was held that the rights of beneficiaries who were in occupation and of whom no enquiries had been made were not mere minor . .
Cited – Midland Bank Plc v Dobson CA 12-Jul-1985
The trial judge had been entitled to find a common intention constructive trust from evidence which he accepted that the parties treated the house as ‘our house’ and had a ‘principle of sharing everything’. Although the judge should approach such . .
Cited – Grant v Edwards and Edwards CA 24-Mar-1986
A couple were not married but lived together in Vincent Farmhouse in which the plaintiff claimed a beneficial interest on separation. The female partner was told by the male partner that the only reason for not acquiring the property in joint names . .
Cited – In re Connolly Brothers Ltd (No. 2) CA 1912
A company had granted a debenture over all its assets, present and future, but wishing to acquire an additional property, it approached a third party who agreed to finance the purchase against a charge. It contracted to buy the property at pounds . .
Cited – Security Trust Co v The Royal Bank of Canada PC 1-Dec-1975
(Bahamas) A company, Fisher agreed to buy land with part of the purchase price to be paid by a fixed date and the balance secured by a mortgage to the vendor. A conveyance and a mortgage were duly executed and held in escrow pending payment of the . .
Cited – Church of England Building Society v Piskor CA 1954
A purchaser, let into possession before completion, granted weekly tenancies to Captain Hamilton and others. The plaintiff building society loaned the sum of pounds 1,600 to assist the purchaser with completion, the money being paid over on . .
Cited by:
Appeal from – Lloyds Bank plc v Rosset HL 29-Mar-1990
The house had been bought during the marriage but in the husband’s sole name. The plaintiff’s charge secured the husband’s overdraft. The bank issued possession proceedings. Mr Rosset had left, but Mrs Rosset claimed, as against the bank an interest . .
Cited – Stack v Dowden HL 25-Apr-2007
The parties had cohabited for a long time, in a home bought by Ms Dowden. After the breakdown of the relationship, Mr Stack claimed an equal interest in the second family home, which they had bought in joint names. The House was asked whether, when . .
Approved – Abbey National Building Society v Cann HL 29-Mar-1990
Registered land was bought with an advance from the plaintiff. The transfer and charge were registered one month later, but in the meantime, the buyer’s parents moved in. When the buyer defaulted, his mother resisted possession proceedings, saying . .
Cited – Scott v Southern Pacific Mortgages Ltd and Others SC 22-Oct-2014
The appellant challenged a sale and rent back transaction. He said that the proposed purchaser had misrepresented the transaction to them. The Court was asked s whether the home owners had interests whose priority was protected by virtue of section . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Trusts, Registered Land, Equity
Updated: 27 January 2022; Ref: scu.251494