Speaking of equitable assignment.. the lengthy and complex judgment of Mr. Justice Foxton in Serious Fraud Office v Litigation Capital Ltd [2021] EWHC 1272 (Comm), released today, includes ([222]ff) an analysis of the nature of the beneficiary’s interest in a common law trust, with reference to whether a holder of rights can create multiple trust interests successively, creating a priority problem between them, or whether, having created one ‘equitable title’, that person is unable to create another one. The judge concludes:

 

[293] On the facts of this case, it is not necessary for me to resolve this question, and with some reluctance given the quality of the parties’ submissions on this issue, I have decided that the issue is best left to the ruminations of the Obligations Discussion Group until such time as a decision on the point is necessary.

 

Also released today is a companion case, Serious Fraud Office v. Hotel Portfolio II UK Ltd., [2021] EWHC 1273 (Comm), which contains the most through discussion I have seen in a judgment of ‘backwards tracing’ (tracing through the payment of a debt).

 

Lionel