More results...

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Filter by Categories
Allocation
ASB
Assured Shorthold tenancy
assured-tenancy
Benefits and care
Deposits
Disrepair
Homeless
Housing Conditions
Housing law - All
Introductory and Demoted tenancies
Leasehold and shared ownership
Licences and occupiers
Mortgage possession
Nuisance
Possession
Regulation and planning
right-to-buy
secure-tenancy
Succession
Trusts and Estoppel
Unlawful eviction and harassment

Express/Constructive trusts: Oh dearie me!

By Dave
13/11/2012

Maybe I’ve been doing this job too long but there are some things which just seem so obvious to me.  I know that the common intention constructive trust is really interesting – empirically as well as in law – but you can’t just jump straight in. 

Pankhania v Chandegra [2012] EWCA Civ 1438 is, I’m afraid, a pretty obvious case which should never have been resisted; that it got to the Court of Appeal is an object lesson to advocates and judges not to jump straight in with your fancy arguments about constructive trusts.  Why?  Because, although the judge proceeded to consider the case largely around the law on constructive trusts, there was, in fact, an express trust made at the time of acquisition of the property.  The express trust essentially said that the parties were tenants in common in equal shares.  Patten LJ rather nicely protects the judge by saying that the procedure used (a Part 8 claim which proceeded as a Part 7 claim) meant that there were no pleadings as such.  Now, it is also fair to say that the circumstances around the purchase of the property did not exactly support the express declaration of trust.  But the way the case proceeded meant that the basic question was ignored by the judge.  As Patten LJ put it: “The whole of [the judge’s] judgment proceeds upon the footing that he had a free hand to decide what was the common intention of the parties at the relevant time but that inquiry was simply not open to him unless the defendant had established a case for setting the declaration of trust aside”.

That basic question was whether the express declaration of trust was vitiated in one of the classic ways – mistake, fraud, undue influence – as outlined by (for example) the Court of Appeal in Goodman v Gallant [1986] 1 FLR 513.  Nothing approaching any of those ways had been asserted by the parties.  there was a potentially interesting question as to whether the express declaration of trust was a sham (in essence to get a mortgage for the purchase of the property), but there was no evidence sufficient to get close to the narrow definition of sham (see the problematic case of Snook v London and West Riding Investments Ltd [1967] 2 QB 786).

So, the key message is this: where there is an express declaration of trust, the only ways to avoid its outcome are to vary the trust or apply to set it aside or rectify it.

5 Comments

  1. Ian Lamacraft

    It was, in fact, argued, in terms, before the trial Judge that the express declaration of trust was conclusive.

    Reply
  2. Ian Lamacraft

    …and by saying that the case was one which “should never have been brought”, surely you mean a case that should never have been resisted?

    Reply
  3. Dave

    Apologies – I see that now and have updated it accordingly. It must have been very frustrating!

    Reply
  4. joseph b

    It appears then that the defendant was professionally misguided

    Reply
    • NL

      On that logic, anyone who lost a case would have to have been professionally misguided.

      Unless you know what the client’s instructions and the advice given were, you can’t leap to that conclusion.

      Reply

Leave a Reply (We can't offer advice on individual issues)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.