Regular updates on relevant case law and legislation - October 2008

CHAPTER 1 THE ESSENCE OF LAND LAW

Box B2 The creation of legal and equitable estates and interests (page 9)

In HSBC Trust Company (UK) Limited v Gabriel Brian Quinn [2007] EWHC 1543 (Ch), it was held that a document could be a deed without using the word ‘deed’. If the word ‘deed’ wasn’t used, the fact that a document was a deed had to be clear from the face of the document, i.e. from the wording in the document, that it was intended to be a deed. A document drawn up by non-lawyers which didn’t contain the word ‘deed’ would be unlikely to meet this requirement unless the parties had used a pre-1989 form of wording that had clearly been recognised as a deed before. In the case the parties hadn’t used the word ‘deed’. Although they had used formal language and formal signatures and had ensured that the signatures were witnessed, this only showed that they intended the document to be legally binding. It wasn’t clear on the face of the document that it was a deed. Something showing that the parties intended it to have the extra status of a deed was needed.

Reform (page 26)

The review of feudal land law has been postponed because other areas of law reform are deemed to be more important. The proposed review will now be put forward for consideration in the 11th Programme. No urgency there then.