A claim brought by a company against a director was time-barred: the claim was to recover a bribe paid by a third party to induce the director to influence the company to negotiate a favourable settlement with the third party. The bank failed in its argument that the claim was proprietary.
Brett LJ said that: ‘[n]either at law nor in equity could this sum . . be treated as the money of the company’. However he did consider that, once the company had obtained judgment for the money there could be a trust.
James LJ thought that there was an equitable debt and applied the Limitation Acts by analogy.
Judges:
Brett LJ, Cotton LJ, James LJ
Citations:
(1880) 5 Ex D 319
Cited by:
Cited – FHR European Ventures Llp and Others v Cedar Capital Partners Llc SC 16-Jul-2014
Approprietary remedy against Fraudulent Agent
The Court was asked whether a bribe or secret commission received by an agent is held by the agent on trust for his principal, or whether the principal merely has a claim for equitable compensation in a sum equal to the value of the bribe or . .
Disapproved – The Attorney General of Hong Kong v Reid and Reid And Marc Molloy Co PC 1-Nov-1993
(New Zealand) The Board considered the power to recover property owned by a public official found to have taken bribes.
Held: The bribes received by the policeman were held on trust for his principal, and so they could be traced into . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Equity
Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.551508