In Matchmove Ltd v Dowding ([2016] EWCA Civ 1233, CA (Eng)) Matchmove (a company controlled by F, a property developer) was negotiating for the purchase of a plot of land (‘the land’) and the adjoining meadow. F intended to split the land into two plots and to build a house on each plot. He orally agreed with his friend D that D would buy one of the plots and the meadow (D wanted to keep horses on the meadow).
In due course, Matchmove entered into a written contract for the sale of the plot to D and this sale was completed. There was, however, no written contract for the sale of the meadow to D. F and D fell out and F sought to resile from the oral agreement to sell the meadow to D.
D sought a declaration that Matchmove held the meadow on trust for him. Matchmove denied the existence of a binding agreement for the sale of the meadow. It relied on the lack of a signed written agreement to satisfy section 2(1) of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989.
F had intended the oral agreement concerning the meadow to be immediately binding. He was well known by D to have a business approach that attached real importance to his word as a businessman. By the time of the dispute, D had paid the entire purchase price for the meadow to Matchmove.
In these circumstances, the question was whether the agreement gave rise to a common intention constructive trust that could fall within section 2(5) of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989.
The Court of Appeal referred to Arden LJ’s discussion of this question in Herbert v Doyle. There, Arden LJ said that section 2(5) could not be relied on: (1) if the parties intend to make a formal agreement setting out the terms on which one or more of the parties is to acquire an interest in property; (2) if further terms for that acquisition remain to be agreed between them so that the interest in property is not clearly identified; and (3) if the parties do not expect their agreement to be immediately binding.
The Court of Appeal did not see this statement as setting out three conditions to be satisfied but as being three ways of making the same point about the effect of the judgment in Cobbe v Yeoman’s Row ([32]).
There was a clear express agreement between the parties. Although both parties were well aware that a written contract would be needed, they regarded this as a technicality and took the view that they already had a binding agreement. The payments made by D provided the detrimental reliance.
There was a common intention constructive trust that fell within section 2(5). D could enforce the oral agreement for the purchase of the meadow.
Michael Lower
