Belmont Finance Corporation v Williams Furniture Ltd (No 2)
[1980] 1 All ER 393
판결 이유
A person who knowingly receives trust property transferred in breach of trust is liable as a constructive trustee, even if they are a company. Knowledge in this context includes actual knowledge, wilful blindness, and knowledge of circumstances that would put an honest person on inquiry.
사실관계
Company assets were used in a transaction designed to provide financial assistance for the purchase of the company's own shares, in breach of the predecessor to s 678 Companies Act 2006.
판결 요약
The Court of Appeal held the recipients were liable as constructive trustees for knowing receipt. The transaction was unlawful financial assistance, and the recipients had sufficient knowledge of the breach.
주요 인용문
"A stranger to the trust who receives trust property with knowledge that it has been transferred in breach of trust is liable as a constructive trustee."
— Buckley LJ
후속 처리
Important authority on knowing receipt and financial assistance, though the categories of knowledge were refined in BCCI v Akindele.