A bankrupt won andpound;100 in a billiards game. The stake was given to stakeholders.
Held: The bankrupt’s trustee could recover the bankrupt’s own stake from the stakeholder but not the stake of the loser. Phillimore J said that: ‘I am bound now to hold . . that where people embark in a perfectly lawful game and contest of skill, not trusting to fortune but to skill, to ascertain the comparative eminence of the two persons, the sums which they deposit to make a joint award are to be considered by the law as sums deposited by way of wagering, the contract is null and void, and the winner cannot recover the fund.’ The andpound;100 staked by the bankrupt was his money and was part of his property which his trustee in bankruptcy had a right to recover from the stakeholder. If the bankrupt at any time received from the stakeholder the stake of andpound;100 which had been deposited by the loser, that receipt ‘must be in the eye of the law a voluntary gift by the stakeholders’ or by the loser or possibly by both to the bankrupt; and if the loser should receive it of the bounty of the winner or of the bounty of the stakeholders or at the bounty of both, so far it would not go to the trustee in bankruptcy.
Judges:
Phillimore J
Citations:
[1899] 2 QB 560
Cited by:
Cited – Lipkin Gorman (a Firm) v Karpnale Ltd HL 6-Jun-1991
The plaintiff firm of solicitors sought to recover money which had been stolen from them by a partner, and then gambled away with the defendant. He had purchased their gaming chips, and the plaintiff argued that these, being gambling debts, were . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Contract
Updated: 14 May 2022; Ref: scu.259418
