“The 19th century case of Dillwyn v Llewelyn is well known to all land lawyers as a case concerning two Welsh brothers who were ostensibly in dispute about a property situated in Swansea, south Wales. The brothers’ father had placed his younger son in possession of certain property, following which he signed a memorandum making a gift of the property to his younger son which was ineffective as it had not been executed by way of deed. The younger son built a house on the land on the strength of the memorandum. This led to a high-profile case between the younger son and his elder brother in which it was ultimately decreed that, by reference to principles of what later became known as proprietary estoppel, the fee simple in the property became vested in the younger son notwithstanding the fact that no conveyance of the property had been made by the father in favour of the younger son …”
€ (Westlaw)
Gwilym Owen and Marie Parker-Jones, ‘Dillwyn v Llewelyn – a fresh perspective on a misconceived approach: an article in honour of the late Professor Mark Thompson’ [2022] 1 Conveyancer and Property Lawyer 70-86.
First posted 2022-03-24 16:15:09
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