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Southwell v Blackburn [2014] EWCA Civ 1347 (16 October 2014)
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The Appellant, David Southwell, appeals against an Order made on 13 December 2013 by HH Judge Pearce-Higgins QC in the Worcester County Court. By that Order the judge ordered him to pay £28,500 to the Respondent, Catherine Blackburn. The Appellant and the Respondent had, in the words of the judge, set up home together in 2002 in a house in Droitwich. The house was purchased in the Appellant's sole name with his money and with the benefit of a repayment mortgage, the liabilities in respect of which were discharged by him alone. On the breakdown of the relationship in June 2012 the Respondent claimed that the Appellant held the property for the benefit of both of them in equal shares. That claim by the Respondent to be a beneficiary of a constructive trust failed, but the judge upheld her alternative claim to an enforceable equity by operation of proprietary estoppel. The judge valued that equity at £28,500 and ordered payment of that amount by the Appellant in satisfaction thereof.
The Appellant, David Southwell, appeals against an Order made on 13 December 2013 by HH Judge Pearce-Higgins QC in the Worcester County Court. By that Order the judge ordered him to pay £28,500 to the Respondent, Catherine Blackburn. The Appellant and the Respondent had, in the words of the judge, set up home together in 2002 in a house in Droitwich. The house was purchased in the Appellant's sole name with his money and with the benefit of a repayment mortgage, the liabilities in respect of which were discharged by him alone. On the breakdown of the relationship in June 2012 the Respondent claimed that the Appellant held the property for the benefit of both of them in equal shares. That claim by the Respondent to be a beneficiary of a constructive trust failed, but the judge upheld her alternative claim to an enforceable equity by operation of proprietary estoppel. The judge valued that equity at £28,500 and ordered payment of that amount by the Appellant in satisfaction thereof.
