Dear Colleagues,

The English Court of Appeal has today considered the applicable limitation period for claims in dishonest assistance, in Central Bank of Nigeria v Williams [2012] EWCA Civ 415 http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2012/415.html. After a review of the authorities, the Chancellor holds at [37] "that an action by a beneficiary under a trust may be brought in respect of any fraud or fraudulent breach of trust to which the trustee was party or privy against both that trustee and any other person who dishonestly assisted him in such fraud or fraudulent breach of trust, in either case, after the expiration of the period for which s.21(3) provides."

The Court thus disagrees with Lord Hoffmann reasoning in the Hong Kong case of Peconic Industrial Development Ltd v Lau Kwok Fai [2009] HKFCA 16, with Black LJ concluding at [61]:

"Section 21(1) is not an easy section to construe. No construction works without hitches. I can well see how it was that Lord Hoffmann, giving full weight to the considerable history of the provision, concluded as he did. However, this appeal has forced us to look again closely at the words of the section and, not without much hesitation, I agree with the Chancellor that they do not justify the implication of a requirement that an action must be against the trustee to be within subsection 21(1)(a)."

Best wishes,

JL

--
James Lee
Lecturer and Director of Careers
Academic Fellow of the Inner Temple
Birmingham Law School
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)121 414 3629
E-mail: j.s.f.lee@bham.ac.uk<mailto:j.s.f.lee@bham.ac.uk>



Web: http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/law/lee-james.aspx

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