In a recent judgment, Dreymoor Fertilizers v. mvTheoforos-1, the Bombay High Court (Sriram J.) has held that a claimant, suing in tort for economic loss, must establish either legal ownership or possessory title over the relevant property at the time of loss. Without going into the correctness of the decision in the specific facts before the Court, it is respectfully submitted that some of the...
Remedies against Directors’ Undue Gains: Personal or Proprietary?
What is the appropriate remedy against a director who makes secret profits? Should the remedy be merely a personal one, or should it be a proprietary one? This issue is one of great importance and several jurisdictions have been debating the issue for years now. The rules against conflict and profit are at the core of a director’s duties; and it is essential for a legal system to provide a...
Arbitration Clauses in Trust Deeds
A learned Single Judge of the Bombay High Court in Jayesh Shah v. Kaydee Family Trust (Arbitration Application 278 of 2012, decided on March 6, 2013) has decided an interesting point of law in connection with arbitration of disputes arising out of trusts. An arbitration clause in a Trust Deed provided for arbitration of all disputes “regarding the interpretation of any of the clauses of...
Ostensible Authority and Estoppel
The Privy Council in Kelly v. Fraser, [2012] UKPC 25, recently revisited the issue of whether an agent can be said to have ostensible authority on the basis of his own representations. Mr. Fraser, the Respondent, became the CEO of Island Life Insurance Company on 1st February, 2000, and shortly after that became a member of the Salaried Staff Pension Plan (“SSP”) of the company. The SSP was...
The Court of Appeal on the illegality defence
The role of illegality as a defence to a claim for damages has always been the subject of much debate. There are two principal rationales that can be proposed for illegality being a defence: (a) that the claimant cannot be allowed to rely on his illegal conduct (reliance-based rationale); and (b) that allowing the claim will result in stultifying the law which rendered the claimant’s conduct...
Court of Appeal on the Award of Damages
A recent decision of the UK Court of Appeal revisits the issue of alternative remedies, one on which there has been significant academic debate. An earlier post discussed the issue of concurrent liability in contract and tort, where the Court of Appeal had clarified some doubts in the area. However, the issue in Ramzan v Brookwide was different- not so much the existence and scope of different...
The Court of Appeals on Dishonest Assistance
The United Kingdom Court of Appeals recently considered an interesting case concerning the standard of dishonesty required to hold a person guilty of assisting in the breach of trust. The factual background in Starglade Properties v. Roland Nash is complex, but for the purposes of this discussion, it is sufficient to note that as a result of certain contractual obligations, Larkstore Ltd., the...
FDI in Trusts
(In the following post, Abhishek Tripathi, an independent legal practitioner, and Mani Gupta, an Associate at Luthra & Luthra examine some complexities in the regulations pertaining to FDI in trusts) The recently notified Consolidated FDI Policy of the Government of India (“FDI Policy”), in para 3.3.3, prescribes that ‘FDI in Trusts other than VCF is not permitted.’ This is an insertion that...
Expanding Investment Horizons for Trusts
Historically, investment avenues for funds held by trusts have been limited. This is on account of Section 20 of the Indian Trust Act, 1882 which contains very specific instruments in which trusts can invest. These are in the nature of risk-free instruments such as government securities, bank deposits and the like, and does not include risk instruments such as stocks and derivatives. Of course...
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