header-logo header-logo

Civil way: 21 April 2023

21 April 2023 / Stephen Gold
Issue: 8021 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Civil way
printer mail-detail
Stuck with a mortgage; caveat (overseas) emptor; small and attending; Vento bands rise.

WORST ENDEAVOURS

The order for transfer of the jointly owned family home by B to A will often be accompanied by A’s undertaking to use best (or reasonable) endeavours to procure B’s release from their mortgage covenants. Breach of the undertaking may well cause economic loss to B. The remedy for B is to apply for an order for sale. That could be followed by a remortgage and release, as it did in SS v RS [2023] EWFC 32 (Fam). There, B still held out for £80,000 compensation from A. The alleged loss arose from his inability to take out another mortgage and loan interest incurred as a result of a poor credit rating flowing from A’s denied default in payments under the transferred property mortgage. The application was pretty hopeless on the facts, as B accepted the wife’s means had been so limited during the period of alleged default that she had had no capacity to procure

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Boies Schiller Flexner—Tim Smyth

Boies Schiller Flexner—Tim Smyth

Firm promotes London international arbitration specialist to partnership

Katten Muchin Rosenman—James Davison & Victoria Procter

Katten Muchin Rosenman—James Davison & Victoria Procter

Firm bolsters restructuring practice with senior London hires

HFW—Guy Marrison

HFW—Guy Marrison

Global aviation disputes practice boosted by London partner hire

NEWS
Writing in NLJ this week, NLJ columnist Dominic Regan surveys a landscape marked by leapfrog appeals, costs skirmishes and notable retirements. With an appeal in Mazur due to be heard next month, Regan notes that uncertainties remain over who will intervene, and hopes for the involvement of the Lady Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls in deciding the all-important outcome
After the Southport murders and the misinformation that followed, contempt of court law has come under intense scrutiny. In this week's NLJ, Lawrence McNamara and Lauren Schaefer of the Law Commission unpack proposals aimed at restoring clarity without sacrificing fair trial rights
The latest Home Office figures confirm that stop and search remains both controversial and diminished. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort University analyses data showing historically low use of s 1 PACE powers, with drugs searches dominating what remains
Boris Johnson’s 2019 attempt to shut down Parliament remains a constitutional cautionary tale. The move, framed as a routine exercise of the royal prerogative, was in truth an extraordinary effort to sideline Parliament at the height of the Brexit crisis. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC dissects how prorogation was wrongly assumed to be beyond judicial scrutiny, only for the Supreme Court to intervene unanimously
A construction defect claim in the Court of Appeal offers a sharp lesson in pleading discipline. In his latest 'Civil way' column for NLJ, Stephen Gold explains how a catastrophically drafted schedule of loss derailed otherwise viable claims. Across the areas explored in this week's column, the message is consistent: clarity, economy and proper pleading matter more than ever
back-to-top-scroll