Jones v Padavatton

Last updated

Jones v Padavatton
Lincolns Inn 1.jpg
Court Court of Appeal
Decided29 November 1968
Citation(s)[1968] EWCA Civ 4, [1969] 1 WLR 328; All ER 616
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting Lord Justice Danckwerts, Lord Justice Salmon, Lord Justice Fenton Atkinson
Keywords
Creating legal relations, enforceability

Jones v Padavatton [1968] EWCA Civ 4 is a leading English decision on contract law. The decision demonstrates how domestic agreements, such as in between a mother and daughter, are presumed not to be legally binding unless there is clear intention.

Contents

Facts

A mother, Mrs Violet Lalgee Jones, agreed with her daughter, Mrs Ruby Padavatton, that if she would give up her secretary job at the Indian embassy in Washington DC and study for the bar in England, the mother would pay maintenance (from Trinidad, East Indian descent). The mother gave monthly payments of 42 pounds and then bought a London house (the daughter moved out of a one-room flat in Acton to 181 Highbury Quadrant, Highbury) which she lived in and rented out. Then they had a quarrel while Mrs Padavatton was still completing her bar exams at Lincoln's Inn. The mother brought an action for possession of the house. The daughter argued there was a binding contract that she could stay.

Judgment

The Court held that there was no binding contract. Although there would have been a contract if it was not the domestic parties related, there was insufficient evidence to rebut the presumption against domestic arrangements. Also, the Court of Appeal stated that the agreement would last until the daughter had passed her Bar finals; yet 5 years had elapsed and she had still not passed them, therefore the contract had elapsed.

See also

Related Research Articles

Baby M was the pseudonym used in the case In re Baby M, 537 A.2d 1227, 109 N.J. 396 for the infant whose legal parentage was in question.

Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent that lacked the authority to bind the principal legally. Ratification defines the international act in which a state indicates its consent to be bound to a treaty if the parties intended to show their consent by such an act. In the case of bilateral treaties, ratification is usually accomplished by exchanging the requisite instruments, and in the case of multilateral treaties, the usual procedure is for the depositary to collect the ratifications of all states, keeping all parties informed of the situation.

<i>Central London Property Trust Ltd v High Trees House Ltd</i> Legal doctrines of promissory estoppel

Central London Property Trust Ltd v High Trees House Ltd [1947] KB 130 is a famous English contract law decision in the High Court. It reaffirmed and extended the doctrine of promissory estoppel in contract law in England and Wales. However, the most significant part of the judgment is obiter dicta as it relates to hypothetical facts; that is, the landlord did not seek repayment of the full wartime rent.

In law, to distinguish a case means a court decides the holding or legal reasoning of a precedent case will not apply due to materially different facts between the two cases. Two formal constraints constrain the later court: the expressed relevant factors in the ratio of the earlier case must be recited or their equivalent recited or the earlier case makes an exception for their application in the circumstances otherwise it envisages, and the ruling in the later case must not expressly doubt (criticise) the result reached in the precedent case.

<i>Balfour v Balfour</i> 1919 English contract law case

Balfour v Balfour [1919] 2 KB 571 is a leading English contract law case. It held that there is a rebuttable presumption against an intention to create a legally enforceable agreement when the agreement is domestic in nature.

<i>Canada (AG) v Lavell</i> Supreme Court of Canada case

Canada (AG) v Lavell, [1974] S.C.R. 1349, was a landmark 5–4 Supreme Court of Canada decision holding that Section 12(1)(b) of the Indian Act did not violate the respondents' right to "equality before the law" under Section 1 (b) of the Canadian Bill of Rights. The two respondents, Lavell and Bédard, had alleged that the impugned section was discriminatory under the Canadian Bill of Rights by virtue of the fact that it deprived Indian women of their status for marrying a non-Indian, but not Indian men.

<i>Miss Potter</i> 2006 film by Chris Noonan

Miss Potter is a 2006 biographical drama film directed by Chris Noonan. It is based on the life of children's author and illustrator Beatrix Potter, and combines stories from her own life with animated sequences featuring characters from her stories, such as Peter Rabbit. Scripted by Richard Maltby Jr., the director of the Tony Award-winning Broadway revue, Fosse, the film stars Renée Zellweger in the title role, Ewan McGregor as her publisher and fiancé, Norman Warne, and Lloyd Owen as solicitor William Heelis. Emily Watson stars as Warne's sister, Millie. Lucy Boynton also stars as the young Beatrix Potter and Justin McDonald appears as the young William Heelis. It was filmed in St. Peter's Square Hammersmith, Cecil Court, Osterley Park, Covent Garden, the Isle of Man, Scotland and the Lake District.

Stambovsky v. Ackley, 169 A.D.2d 254, commonly known as the Ghostbusters ruling, is a case in the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, that held that a house, which the owner had previously advertised to the public as haunted by ghosts, legally was haunted for the purpose of an action for rescission brought by a subsequent purchaser of the house. Because of its unique holding, the case has been frequently printed in textbooks on contracts and property law and widely taught in U.S. law school classes, and is often cited by other courts.

<i>Beswick v Beswick</i>

Beswick v Beswick[1967] UKHL 2, [1968] AC 58 was a landmark English contract law case on privity of contract and specific performance. The Lords, overruling the decision of Lord Denning in the Court of Appeal, ruled that a person who was not party to a contract had no independent standing to sue to enforce it, even if the contract was clearly intended for their benefit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Consideration</span> Concept of legal value in connection with contracts

Consideration is a concept of English common law and is a necessity for simple contracts but not for special contracts. The concept has been adopted by other common law jurisdictions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clovelly-Kepplestone</span>

Clovelly-Kepplestone was a private boarding school for girls in Eastbourne, Sussex. It existed from 1908 until 1934 and was located in Staveley Road, just off the seafront in the Meads district of the town. Known to staff and pupils as "Clo-Kepp", it came about following a merger of two schools: the "Ladies and Kindergarten School, Clovelly", and the "Ladies School, Kepplestone". At its peak in the 1920s, the school had some 150–160 pupils.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English contract law</span> Law of contracts in England and Wales

English contract law is the body of law that regulates legally binding agreements in England and Wales. With its roots in the lex mercatoria and the activism of the judiciary during the industrial revolution, it shares a heritage with countries across the Commonwealth, from membership in the European Union, continuing membership in Unidroit, and to a lesser extent the United States. Any agreement that is enforceable in court is a contract. A contract is a voluntary obligation, contrasting to the duty to not violate others rights in tort or unjust enrichment. English law places a high value on ensuring people have truly consented to the deals that bind them in court, so long as they comply with statutory and human rights.

Same-sex marriage in Wyoming has been legally recognized since October 21, 2014. The U.S. state of Wyoming had previously prohibited state recognition of same-sex marriages by statute since 1977 and had enacted a more explicit ban in 2003. An attempt to enact legislation recognizing domestic partnerships as an alternative to marriage for same-sex couples failed in 2013. On October 17, 2014, a federal district court found the state's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Its ruling took effect on October 21 when state officials notified the court that they would not appeal the decision.

Intention to create legal relations, otherwise an "intention to be legally bound", is a doctrine used in contract law, particularly English contract law and related common law jurisdictions.

<i>Merritt v Merritt</i>

Merritt v Merritt [1970] EWCA Civ 6 is an English contract law case, on the matter of creating legal relations. While under the principles laid out in Balfour v Balfour, domestic agreements between spouses are rarely legally enforceable, this principle was rebutted where two spouses who formed an agreement over their matrimonial home were not on good terms.

Cobbe v Yeoman's Row Management Ltd[2008] UKHL 55 is a House of Lords case in English land law and relates to proprietary estoppel in the multi-property developer context. The court of final appeal awarded the project manager £150,000 on a quantum meruit basis for unjust enrichment because Yeoman's Row had received the benefit of his services without paying for that. The court refused to find or acknowledge a binding contract, prior arrangement with a third party or promise, overturning a £2m award on the basis of a possible lien arising from a promise over the property. The court found a non-binding agreement in principle, entirely subject to the owner's final say to take into account for example their view of the market; this was the basis on the facts on which the parties were proceeding.

Southland Corp. v. Keating, 465 U.S. 1 (1984), is a United States Supreme Court decision concerning arbitration. It was originally brought by 7-Eleven franchisees in California state courts, alleging breach of contract by the chain's then parent corporation. Southland pointed to the arbitration clauses in their franchise agreements and said it required disputes to be resolved that way; the franchisees cited state franchising law voiding any clause in an agreement that required franchisees to waive their rights under that law. A 7-2 majority held that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) applied to contracts executed under state law.

<i>Welch v Jess</i>

Welch v Jess [1976] NZ recent Law 185 is a reported precedent case in New Zealand on intention to create legal relations in the law of contract.

<i>Macleod v Macleod</i>

Macleod v Macleod [2008] UKPC 64 was a judgment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in an appeal originating from the Isle of Man. It made clear that postnuptial agreements in the Isle of Man cannot be varied by a court other than for sufficient policy reasons. Although technically only applying to Manx postnuptial agreements, the judgment is treated with authority in the United Kingdom.

In the English system of common law, judges have devised a number of mechanisms to allow them to cope with precedent decisions.