Current issues in land law and trusts

Taught by

• Prof Ben Macfarlane (UCL)
• Prof Charles Mitchell (UCL)
• Penelope Reed QC (5 Stone Buildings)

Accreditation: 1.5 CPD hours by the BSB.

This seminar, organised jointly by the UCL Private Law Group and 5 Stone Buildings, discussed important developments in several areas of land law and trusts.

Topics examined included:

• rescission of settlements and dispositions of trust property on the grounds of mistake (e.g. Kennedy v Kennedy [2014] EWHC 4129; Wright v National Westminster Bank plc [2014] EWHC 3158 (Ch); Freedman v Freedman [2015] EWHC 1457 (Ch); van der Merwe v Goldman [2016] EWHC 790 (Ch); Bainbridge v Bainbridge [2016] EWHC 898 (Ch); Jersey case-law including In the matter of the Z Trust Ltd [2016] JRC 048)
• the Court’s supervisory jurisdiction over trusts, including Beddoe orders and disclosure of information
• the informal acquisition of rights in land (e.g. Ely v Robson [2016] EWCA Civ 774; Davies v Davies[2016] EWCA Civ 463; Barnes v Phillips [2015] EWCA Civ 1056)
• priority disputes and subrogation (e.g. AIB Group v Turner [2015] EWHC 3994 (Ch), Wishart v Credit & Mercantile [2015] EWCA Civ 655; Bank of Cyprus v Menelaou [2015] UKSC 66)
• the operation of s 62 of the Law of Property Act 1925 in relation to easements (Wood v Waddington[2015] EWCA Civ 538)

Further topics to be covered in printed material included:

• solicitors’ liability in relation to fraudulent conveyances (e.g. Purrunsing v A’Court & Co [2016] EWHC 789 (Ch))
• tracing rules and claims against remote recipients (e.g. Federal Republic of Brazil v Durant International Corp [2015] 3 WLR 599)
• the new approach to illegality and its relevance to trusts (e.g. Patel v Mirza [2016] UKSC 42 and its impact on Tinsley v Milligan [1994] 1 AC 340).

About the speakers

Ben McFarlane is a Professor of Law at University College London, where he teaches trusts and property law and commercial law. He is the author of The Structure of Property Law (2009) and The Law of Proprietary Estoppel (2014), a co-author of Land Law: Text, Cases and Materials (3rd edn, 2015) and of Hayton & Mitchell: Text, Cases and Materials on the Law of Trusts and of Equitable Remedies (14th edn, 2015) and is a contributor to Snell’s Equity.

Charles Mitchell is a Professor of Law, and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Laws, at University College London, where he teaches trusts and unjust enrichment law. He has recently published the 19th edition of Underhill and Hayton: Law Relating to Trusts and Trustees (2016), with David Hayton and Paul Matthews, and he is currently working on the forthcoming 9th edition of Goff and Jones: The Law of Unjust Enrichment (2016), with Paul Mitchell and Stephen Watterson. He is also the co-author of Hayton & Mitchell: Text, Cases and Materials on the Law of Trusts and of Equitable Remedies (14th edn, 2015).

Penelope Reed QC has a wide Chancery practice with a special emphasis on trusts, wills, contentious probate, family provision claims and tax. She is a Civil Recorder and Deputy High Court judge. She has published widely and is, for example, a co-author of Risk and Negligence in Wills, Estates and Trusts and also of a Practical Guide to the Trustee Act 2000.