EVENT: UCL CLP – Mistaken Gifts after Pitt v Holt

Posted December 12th, 2013 in Forthcoming events, gifts by sally

‘The recent Supreme Court decision in Pitt v Holt [2013] UKSC 26 has put into sharp focus a question which has vexed English lawyers for some time: when can a donor recover a gift mistakenly made? Their Lordships ruled that there had to be a ‘causative mistake of sufficient gravity’. In the light of this ruling, the lecture will explore and try to systematise the principal competing approaches towards the recovery of mistaken gifts and to assess their underlying assumptions. How can we distinguish between mistakes which are sufficiently serious and those that are not, and what are the implications of Pitt v Holt for the law of gifts more generally? It will be argued that a pure causative mistake test may in fact be preferable to the two-stage inquiry adopted by Pitt v Holt. Properly handled, such a test could accommodate many of the concerns that often drive the call for an additional criterion of ‘sufficient gravity’.’

Date: 13th February 2014, 6.00pm

Location: UCL Faculty of Laws, Bentham House, Endsleigh Gardens, London WC1H 0EG

Charge: Free, registration required

More information can be found here.