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Broken promises: not so happy sailing

01 November 2024
Issue: 8092 / Categories: Features , Contract
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Mark Pawlowski on when a promise becomes a declaration of trust

Words spoken in conversation during parties’ intimate relationships can assume an unforeseen legal significance when examined years later by the courts. The facts in Rowe v Prance [1999] 2 FLR 787, [1999] All ER (D) 496 serve as a vivid illustration of this.

Sail away

The claimant was a widow who cohabited for 14 years with the defendant, a married man of considerable private means. In 1993, he told the claimant he would divorce his wife and use the proceeds of the sale of the matrimonial home to buy a yacht for them to share and sail around the world. The defendant duly purchased a yacht for £172,000, which was renamed so as to incorporate the parties’ respective names.

The yacht was registered in the defendant’s sole name, the defendant giving the excuse that a joint registration was not possible because the claimant did not possess an ocean master’s certificate. The claimant gave up her rented house and put her

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