Property Litigation, Commercial Litigation

Land, especially mortgages, landlord and tenant; and constructive trusts; professional negligence, insolvency and franchising;

Qualified 1976; Lincoln’s Inn.

Harvey v Dunbar Assets PLC [2013] All ER (D) 400 (Jul) (Court of Appeal) – whether a guarantee contained in a single document is binding on the signatories if one of the signatures is forged; whether the principle in Grahm v Southgate Sands was displaced by the document in question. Whether generally the Graham principle has been overruled by Rainy Sky v Kookmin Bank. Brightlingsea Havent Ltd v Morris [2009] 2 P & CR 169 – whether caravan site owner was precluded by proprietary estoppel from ending periodic tenancies by notice; whether the structures in question were caravans for the purposes of the relevant legislation; Brightlingsea Haven Ltd & anor v Morris & ors (QBD, Jack J [2008] All ER (D) 307) (construction of prohibitions contained in Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960; whether informal promise of tenancy can result in order for the grant of a tenancy notwithstanding restrictions on proprietary estoppel set out by House of Lords in Yeoman’s Row v Cobbe); HSBC v Quinn [2007] All ER (D) 125) (what features must a document possess in order to be a deed, when the document does not describe itself as a deed);Ledger-Beadell v Peach [2007] 2 FLR 210: Claim against one cohabitant by the parents of the other for repayment of monies provided to buy a house for the couple. Claimants allege monies were advanced as a loan; claim defended on basis that monies were subject to presumption of advancement or alternatively that they were held subject to constructive trust.

Krasner v Dennison, [2001] Ch 76 (whether a trustee in bankruptcy is entitled to the bankrupt’s personal pension policies); Esso v Addison and others (Commercial Court) (implied duties of good faith in franchising agreements);Sparkle Properties v Residential Development [1998] EGCS 68 (powers of receiver and manager appointed under Landlord and Tenant Act 1987); Virdee v Scottish Equitable Life [1998] 148 NLJ 1843 (constructive notice);CIBC Mortgages plc v Pitt [1994] 1 AC 200: Undue influence; constructive notice of the same by a mortgagee; requirements for rescinding a transaction where there has been actual undue influence.Grant v Edwards (1986) CH 638 (constructive trusts involving cohabitants); CIBC Mortgages v Pitt (1994) 1AC 200 (undue influence as a reason for avoiding liability under a mortgage and the circumstances in which a lender is deemed to have had notice of such undue influence);

Publications:

Commercial Litigation Journal –  Nuisance: Neighbourhood watch – June 2017 Powers and Duties of Mortgagees, Receivers and Adminsitrators in the Management and Sale of Property 2017 Atkin’s Court Forms, Specific Performance (2015 edition) Trusts & Estates Law and Tax Journal – two-part article, entitled “Third Spectre” and “Just Clause”. Whether charities can be prevented from making public comment if government imposes a gagging clause on them in an outsourcing contract (April and May 2014). Trusts & Estates Law and Tax Journal “An Unresolved Question” – whether a Will needs to be present in order for the testator or the witnesses to be able, validly, to acknowledge their signatures (September 2013). Corporate Rescue and Insolvency “When can an IVA defeat a mortgage” (June 2008).

Working knowledge of French and German.

Chancery Bar Association; Property Bar Association; Professional Negligence Bar Association.

Syracuse University, USA (BA).