The defendant appealed against orders which granted declarations by way of summary judgment in favour of the claimants in relation to the beneficial ownership of freehold and leasehold property in England, and secondly injunctions originally obtained by the claimants without notice, designed to regulate the defendant’s conduct pending the submission to the court on a future application of proposals for the disposal of one of those properties.
He submitted that the issues as to the beneficial ownership of the properties were unsuitable for summary judgment rather than a full trial, and that the judge’s decision to continue the injunctions was vitiated both by inappropriate findings that the defendant was dishonest in his dealings with the claimants, which ought not to have been made before a full trial, and because of the absence of any prior threat by the defendant to do the acts prohibited by the injunctions.
Held: The appeal was allowed and the matter sent for trial.
Rimer, Briggs, Floyd LJJ
[2014] EWCA Civ 1267
Bailii
England and Wales
Land, Trusts
Updated: 21 December 2021; Ref: scu.537240