From: Robert Stevens <robert.stevens@law.ox.ac.uk>
To: ENRICHMENT@LISTS.MCGILL.CA
Date: 15/01/2021 15:46:23
Subject: Knowing Receipt

Good (ie I agree with it) decision on knowing receipt with some conflicts thrown in, from Fancourt J.

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2021/60.html

[110]

"The knowing recipient's liability depends on his knowledge that the property he receives is trust property and is to be dealt with in that way. His receipt is not wrongful in the sense that he has acted dishonestly or culpably (unless he has also dishonestly assisted in the breach of trust), but his liability to deal with the property as if he were a trustee arises at the moment of receipt because of his knowledge that the property is trust property. If the transferee then deals with the property otherwise than as a trustee should (whether by failing to restore it to the trust or by dealing with it as his own) he is at fault and will be liable for the consequences. In those circumstances, a personal claim against the transferee can properly be said to be fault-based, but the reason for liability is that the transferee has knowingly dealt with (or retained) property that belongs to the trust inconsistently with his duty. If the property is not trust property, there cannot be liability of that kind."

R