Purrunsing v A’Court [2016] EWHC 789 (Ch)

July/August 2016 #161

The claim arose from a purported sale of a property to the claimant by a fraudster who purported to be, but was not in fact, the registered owner of the property. By the time the fraud was discovered the whole of the purchase price had been paid by the claimant to the second defendant (the claimant’s conveyancer), by the second defendant to the first defendant (the fraudster’s solicitor) and by the first defendant to an account in Dubai upon the fraudster’s instructions.

The fraudster’s instructions to the first defendant were that the property had been given to him by his father,...

Ali v Bashir & anr [2014] EWHC 3853 (Ch)

March 2016 #157

The first and second defendants are a married couple. The defendants purchased 17 Blackmore Crescent, Woking, Surrey (the property) in 1997. The purchase was financed in part using a loan secured on the property.

By declaration of trust dated 14 January 1998 (the trust deed), the first defendant transferred his beneficial interest in the property to the second defendant. Under the terms of the trust deed, the property was to be held upon trust for the second defendant, who was to have sole use and occupation of the property and was to indemnify the first defendant in respect of th...

Chadwick v Collinson & ors [2014] EWHC 3055 (Ch)

January/February 2015 #146

Lisa Jane Clay (the deceased) and the claimant lived together from about 2003. They had a child together named Joseph, who was six years old in April 2013. From January 2013, they lived at the property at 36 Lowlands Road, Lancashire (the property) which the claimant and the deceased held as joint tenants. The deceased made a will on 18 August 2008 under which the claimant was the sole residuary beneficiary. The net value of the estate was £79,098.87 of which £60,000 comprised the deceased’s interest in the property. The couple’s relationship was at all times entirely stable,...