Equity law originates from Old English common law, wherein courts exercised discretion to administer justice based on natural law. It takes precedence over common law and statute law when a conflict arises between the two, and neither can deliver the appropriate verdict.
Equity and Trusts is a fast moving subject. In the field of case law there has been a steady accumulation in the volume of significant decisions in the law of trusts. Some of these include the seminal decisions in Charity Commission for England and Wales v Framjee [2014] EWHC 2507 (Chapter 3, certainty of intention and Chapter 16, tracing); Valee v Birchwood [2013] EWHC 1449 (Chapter 4, donatio mortis causa); Pitt v Holt, Futter v Futter [2013] 2 AC 108 (Chapter 6, the Hastings-Bass principle); Wise v Jimenez [2013] Lexis citation 84 (Chapter 7, resulting trust); Keene v Wellcom London Ltd [2014] EWHC 134 (Chapter 7, dissolution of a dormant unincorporated association); Prest v Petrodel Resources Ltd [2013] 2 AC 415 (Chapter 7 resulting trust); FHR European Ventures v Cedar Partners [2014] UKSC 45 (Chapter 8, proprietary status of bribes received by agents in breach of fiduciary duties); Novoship (UK) Ltd v Nikitin [2014] EWCA 908 (Chapter 8, accessory liability); Agarwala v Agarwala [2013] unreported (Chapter 9, investment property and co-ownership); Re Freud, Rawstron v Freud [2014] EWHC 2477 (Chapter 10, construction of a will and sur- rounding circumstances); R v Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages [2014] AC 610 (Chapter 12, status of the Church of Scientology); Williams v Central Bank of Nigeria [2014] UKSC 10 (Chapter 16, limitation periods for knowingly receiving trust property and dishonestly assisting claims); Nationwide Building Society v Davisons Solicitors [2012] EWCA 1626 (Chapter 16, relief under s61 of the Trustee Act 1925). In the field of statute law, modifications of trusts law were introduced by the Trusts (Capital and Income) Act 2013 (Chapter 14, disapplication of apportionment rules for future trusts) and the Inherit- ance and Trustees’ Powers Act 2014 (Chapter 14, amendments to ss31 and 32 of the Trustee Act 1925).
