Helen Pugh discusses knowing receipt and the proprietary base

Read Helen Pugh’s article on knowing receipt and a recent related High Court decision in Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law.

Helen Pugh was recently published in the May edition of Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law where she analysed a recent High Court decision in a knowing receipt claim against a Saudi Arabian bank; Byers and Ors v Samba Financial Group [2021] EWHC 230 (Ch).

It considered the vexed issue of whether a beneficiary must have a continuing equitable interest enduring upon receipt of the property by the recipient to establish a knowing receipt claim. In a detailed and well-reasoned judgment Mr Justice Fancourt answered that question in the affirmative.

Knowing receipt

Knowing receipt is an English law claim available to a beneficiary of a trust whose property has been transferred in breach of trust to a recipient whose knowledge renders it
inequitable for that property to be received or retained. The destruction of the beneficiary’s continuing proprietary interest in the property by or before the receipt is fatal to a claim in knowing receipt.

The decision in this case opens up the possibility of policy adjustment to reflect the different risk profile posed by different types of property and property governed by different
applicable laws.

Butterworths article; Knowing receipt and the proprietary base

Read the full article published in Butterworths here.

This article was first published in the May issue of Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law.

Find out more

Helen is an established commercial and insolvency junior with experience of a broad range of matters including professional negligence, company and shareholder disputes, civil fraud, and arbitration. To instruct Helen or to find out more please contact Matt Sale  on +44 (0)20 7427 4910 or Peter Foad on +44 (0)20 7427 0807.

Legal Blogs 24 May, 2021