At the risk of stating the obvious (and/or going on a tangent of my own) should not the answer to the above question be predicated upon the answer to the following question: When does the limitation period begin to run? In Kleinwort Benson, as the money claimed by the plaintiff-bank was paid to the local authorities before the six year limitation period under section 5 of the 1980 Act, the plaintiff-bank contended that pursuant to section 32(1)(c) of the same Act, the limitation period only began to run from the time the mistake was or could reasonably be discovered. And, of course, that date was the date of judgment in Hazell v Hammersmith LBC. On the other side, the local authorities argued that: (a) the true import of section 32(1)(c) is that it does not touch on mistakes of law; and (b) the proper interpretation of the phrase 'discovered' vis-a-vis mistakes under section 32(1)(c) pointed solely to mistakes of fact and not mistakes of law. As we all know the majority of their Lordships did not buy the argument of the local authorities. Lord Goff ruled that the equitable rule (i.e., that time should only run from the time at which the mistake was, or could reasonably be, discovered) which underpins all mistakes applied immaterial of whether they were mistakes of fact or mistakes of law.

Louis Joseph