Quistclose Trust Case Study

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Introduction A Quistclose trust arises when money is paid to a recipient for a specific purpose, if that purpose fails the money is held on trust for the payer. It mostly arises in insolvency cases where the proprietary rights have to be established. However, this type of trust has been thought to be inconsistent with the traditional trust principle. Many have suggested the Quistclose trust must be treated as any other fully fledged security device taking into account the protection it offers the payer on insolvency and should therefore be registrable. This essay critically analyses the concept of Quistclose trust, whether it differs from the resulting trusts. Barclays Bank Limited v Quistclose Investments Limited In a bid to meet the dividend …show more content…

Though there is no need for either party to use the word trust, the courts must be able to construe some sort of positive intent that the equitable interest was not to reside in the transferee. However Lord Millett later in Twinsectra Ltd denounces the emphasis previously placed on the party’s intent. Twinsectra involved a borrower seeking short term finance for the purchase of land and Lord Millett in this case states that Quistclose trusts are resulting trusts which arise by operation of law. His conclusion is based on the theory that resulting trust emerges when there is a transfer of property in circumstances in which the transferor did not intend to benefit the recipient. Carnworth J, however contends that from Twinsectra it seems that the parties place no real significance to the purpose so even applying Lord Millett’s newly configured resulting trust analysis, there is no real intent on the lenders part to ensure that the recipient does not receive the money at his free disposal. Furthermore, a key aspect of any intent to create a trust always revolves around the funds being held separately and so by devaluing this factor Lord Millett is detracting from traditional trust law principles and in the process is making it much easier to find a Quistclose trust in situations where it was never

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