Lewis v Averay | |
---|---|
Court | Court of Appeal |
Citation | [1971] EWCA Civ 4, [1972] 1 QB 198, [1971] 3 WLR 603 |
Keywords | |
Mistake about identity, fraudulent misrepresentation |
Lewis v Averay [1971] EWCA Civ 4 is a case in English contract law on fraudulent misrepresentation or "mistake" about identity.
Impersonating Richard Greene, a popular actor from The Adventures of Robin Hood (TV series) , a rogue gave this false name to the plaintiff who had advertised the sale of his car, and offered to buy it for the advertised price, £450. Subsequently, the rogue appended his signature that clearly displayed "R. A. Greene" on a cheque which he presented to the seller. As a result, he was granted the chance of taking away the car. The cheque bounced and the buyer was indeed not Richard Greene. The rogue sold the car to Averay, a third party who purchased the car in good faith. An action was brought against Averay for conversion.
The Court of Appeal, following Phillips v Brooks held that despite his mistake, the plaintiff had completed a contract with the rogue. Lord Denning MR held there was no operative mistake and the property had passed to the rogue. [1] Therefore Mr. Averay got to keep the car. He held there was nothing to displace the Ingram v Little presumption here, and that case had ‘special facts’.
Phillimore LJ concurred.
Nemo dat quod non habet, literally meaning "no one can give what they do not have", is a legal rule, sometimes called the nemo dat rule, that states that the purchase of a possession from someone who has no ownership right to it also denies the purchaser any ownership title. It is equivalent to the civil (continental) Nemo plus iuris ad alium transferre potest quam ipse habet rule, which means "one cannot transfer to another more rights than they have". The rule usually stays valid even if the purchaser does not know that the seller has no right to claim ownership of the object of the transaction ; however, in many cases, more than one innocent party is involved, making judgment difficult for courts and leading to numerous exceptions to the general rule that aim to give a degree of protection to bona fide purchasers and original owners. The possession of the good of title will be with the original owner.
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