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Citation(s) [1862] EWHC Ch J67, (1862) 4 De G F & J 517 Similar Whittington v Seale Hayne, Johnson v Agnew, Taylor Fashions Ltd v Liverpool Victoria Trustees Co Ltd | ||
Dillwyn v Llewelyn [1862] EWHC Ch J67 is an English contract law case concerning proprietary estoppel.
Contents
Facts
In 1853 a father (Lewis Weston Dillwyn, who lived at Sketty Hall) wished to give his younger son (Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn) an estate at Hendrefoilan in Wales, and thought he had done so by signing a memorandum presenting it to him “for the purpose of furnishing himself with a dwelling-house”. The memorandum was unfortunately not a deed. The son incurred great expense in building himself a house on the land. Two years later the father died and the elder son (John Dillwyn Llewelyn) disputed his younger brother's title.
Sir John Romilly MR decreed that the younger son was entitled to a life interest, worth £14,000.
Judgment
Lord Westbury LC held that the younger son did not have merely an incomplete gift, but was in fact entitled to call for a legal conveyance, and not merely of a life-estate, but of the whole fee-simple. He said the following.