判决理由
The Statute of Frauds cannot be used as an instrument of fraud. Where a person acquires land on an oral understanding to hold it on trust for another, equity will enforce the trust despite the lack of written evidence.
事实
Boustead purchased coffee estates at auction on an oral agreement to hold them on trust for the Comtesse de la Rochefoucauld. He later claimed absolute ownership.
判决摘要
Lindley LJ held that equity would not allow the statute to be used to perpetrate a fraud. Boustead held the estates on trust.
关键引述
"It is a fraud on the part of a person to whom land is conveyed as a trustee, and who knows it was so conveyed, to deny the trust and claim the land as his own."
— Lindley LJ
后续处理
Good law
Established that statute of frauds cannot be used as an engine of fraud.