The plaintiff paid for goods bought from the defendant. The defendant then brought an action for payment of the price alleging that he had not been paid. The claimant could not find his receipt for the first payment, and was ordered by the court to pay again. He then found the receipt and brought an action for money had and received to recover the second payment.
Held: Where money has been wrongly paid under the compulsion of legal process it cannot be recovered back in action for money had and received to the payer’s use.
Lord Kenyon said: ‘I am afraid of such a precedent. If this action could be maintained I know now that cause of action could ever be at rest. After a recovery by process of law there must be an end to litigation, otherwise there would be no security for any person.’
Judges:
Lord Kenyon CJ
Citations:
[1775-1802] All ER Rep 631
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Applied – Wilson v Ray 1-May-1839
Lord Denman CJ descirbed the pronciple establishedin Marriott: .that what a party recovers from another by legal process, without fraud, the loser shall never recover back by virtue of any facts which could have availed him in the former proceeding. . .
Cited – John Ruskin College v Harley QBD 26-Nov-2013
A sum had been paid into court in 1997. Other sums were paid out, but this sum was left against costs liability. It was discovered much laterand paid out to the claimant. The former defendant now said that it had been paid out twice, and alleged . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Equity, Litigation Practice
Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.593141