The courts are adopting an inconsistent approach to cohabitee disputes, says Sarah Greer
Once again in recent months the Court of Appeal has been required to grapple with the thorny issue of constructive trust and proprietary estoppel in the context of the family home. Once again, its decision demonstrates the difficulty for the courts in consistently applying well-established legal principles in circumstances where even the parties themselves struggle to identify their intention or expectations with any degree of clarity.
JAMES v THOMAS
In James v Thomas s [2007] EWCA Civ 1212, [2007] All ER (D) 373 (Nov), the claimant, Sharon James, claimed that she had acquired a beneficial interest in a property registered in the sole name of her former partner, Peter Thomas. The couple had met after Mr Thomas had acquired the property, known as “The Cottage”. In 1989, Ms James moved into The Cottage, and lived there until the couple separated, some 15 years later, in 2004.
From the outset, Ms James began working in Mr Thomas’s agricultural building and
