Court Court of Appeal | Citation(s) [1979] 1 WLR 431 | |
Pascoe v Turner [1979] 1 WLR 431 is an English land law case, concerning proprietary estoppel.
Contents
Facts
The husband, after 10 years living in a house registered in his name with his wife, left for a mistress and assured her the house would be hers. She redecorated, improved and repaired, but there was never any written agreement or conveyance. Action for possession.
Judgment
The Court of Appeal held the mistress occupied the house under a bare licence, and had received an imperfect gift of the house. No trust could be inferred, but the encouragement to improve the house in the belief it was hers created a proprietary estoppel. A mere licence can be defeated by a sale of the house, so the husband would have to execute a conveyance, Dillwyn v Llewelyn (1862) 4 De GF&J 517, Inwards v Baker [1965] 2 QB 29, and Crabb v Arun DC [1976] Ch 179 applied.