We will run a seminar about the English Court of Appeal decision in Liden v Burton. Details are as follows:
Session A:
Date: 17 October 2017 (Tuesday)
Time: 1:00 – 3:00 pm
Venue: Classroom 3, CUHK Graduate Law Centre, 2/F., Bank of America Tower, Central
Speaker: Professor Michael Lower
Session B:
Date: 1 November 2017 (Wednesday)
Time: 1:30 – 3:30 pm
Venue: Breakout Room 510, 5/F, Lee Shau Kee Building, CUHK, Shatin
Speaker: Professor Michael Lower
(Same seminar in two different venues)
All are welcome!
Please register at: www.law.cuhk.edu.hk/propertylawseminar
For enquiry, please contact Ms Vivian Chen at vivianc@cuhk.edu.hk.
ABSTRACT
Proprietary estoppel comes into play where: (1) a landowner (A) gives a third party (R) an assurance that R has or will have an interest in A’s land; (2) R incurs detriment; (3) in reliance on A’s assurance; and (4) in these circumstances it would be unconscionable for A to go back on the assurance given. In these circumstances, R can apply for relief and the court has a discretion to order the relief that it decides would undo the unconscionability arising from A’s attempt to resile from the assurance given.
Proprietary estoppel has a part to play where A and R are a couple in a stable relationship and the property to which the assurance refers is their family home. The courts have developed an approach to proprietary estoppel that is tailored to the family context and that surmounts potential obstacles to the use of proprietary estoppel here. Thus, the assurance may be couched in vague terms but still be clear enough in its context. The concept of detriment is wide enough to include the normal incidents of forming and maintaining a family. If claimants had to show that the assurance was the only factor inducing them to incur detriment it would be difficult for a proprietary estoppel claim to succeed; A would be able to defeat the claim by pointing to R’s mixed motives since the family relationship will often provide a convincing explanation for R’s actions. The courts have developed an approach to reliance that keeps alive the realistic prospect of a successful claim.
The decision of the English Court of Appeal in Liden v Burton ([2016] EWCA Civ 275) illustrates the ways in which the law of proprietary estoppel has been adapted by the courts for use in the family home context. Arguably, the decision represents a further stage in this process of adaptation. Here the assurance was that ‘we would be together for the future, that this would be our home and that he would look after me forever’. This might appear to be an assurance that A regarded the relationship as being for the long term. In its context, it was understood as an assurance that R would have an interest in A’s property.
Proprietary estoppel and the common intention constructive trust overlap; there is no obvious reason why Ms Liden could not have relied on the common intention constructive trust. It is, however, well-established that the fact that a property has been acquired as the family home of a couple who are married or in a long term stable relationship does not lead the courts to infer the existence of a common intention constructive trust. Arguably, there is a discrepancy here between the approach taken in Liden and that taken in common intention constructive trust cases.
