Dear Colleagues,



A big decision has been handed down today by the UK Supreme Court in Williams v Central Bank of Nigeria

[2014] UKSC 10: http://supremecourt.uk/decided-cases/docs/UKSC_2012_0113_Judgment.pdf The case considers what the "constructive trustee" formula means and how dishonest assistance fits into the limitation framework under s 21 of the Limitation Act 1980. A majority of the Supreme Court disagrees with the Court of Appeal and holds the claims are time-barred. There are various observations about the nature of "ancillary liability" in equity (with a some comments on knowing receipt). The two key points decided are that 1) the language of "constructive trust" used to describe dishonest assistant liability does not mean that there is a true trust for the purposes of the section and 2) the phrase (in s 21(1)(a)) "in respect of any fraud or fraudulent breach of trust to which the trustee was a party or privy" only applies to claims brought against the trustee themselves who was party to the fraud. The majority thus agree with the opinion of Lord Hoffmann in the Hong Kong case of Peconic Industrial Development Ltd v Lau Kwok Fai [2009] 5 HKC 135.



Lords Mance and Clarke dissents for different reasons and on different points.



Best wishes,

James



--
James Lee
Senior Lecturer and Director of Admissions
Birmingham Law School, room 235
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT, United Kingdom

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


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


SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1192219

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