The purchaser under a share sale agreement sought money due in default. The vendors had accounts prepared for them which would give rise to a large sum being payable to the claimant. They served a notice disputing the accounts. The notice implied that a discussion period had been reached, but they also claimed that the purchaser had not himself completed certain stages and that therefore that stage had not been reached.
Held: The equitable doctrine of election, requiring a party taking the benefit of a document to accept also the burden applied to litigation where a party was seeking to present inconsistent arguments. In order for the claimant to put the defendant to that election, he had to show that the defendant had taken some futher step beyond the pleadings which would make it inequitable to pursue both lines of argument.
Gabriel Moss QC
Times 03-Mar-2005
England and Wales
Equity, Litigation Practice
Updated: 27 December 2021; Ref: scu.223462
