Eleanor recently represented the Respondent in the Court of Appeal. Judgment was handed down by the Court of Appeal on 4th December 2014.
The Respondent was successful in having the Appeal dismissed. The Court of Appeal did not require Eleanor to amplify her written submissions.
The Appeal arose from a 4 day Trial in the Manchester County Court in December 2013.
Eleanor represented the Claimant at that Trial.
The Claimant and Defendant are brother and sister. The Defendant was alleging undue influence against her brother in respect of a deed of transfer of property.
The Claim succeeded in its entirety at Trial and the learned Recorder in the Manchester County Court was satisfied that undue influence was not made out on the facts.
The Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the learned Recorder. In so doing, the Court of Appeal determined that a decision as to whether there is a relationship of trust and confidence as between two people, and whether a transaction has been procured by undue influence, is necessarily highly fact sensitive and justifiably dependent upon the view formed by the judge of the principal protagonists. As such, the Court of Appeal determined that there was no justification to go behind the conclusions reached by the learned Recorder.
