Jones v Padavatton

Jones v Padavatton [1968] EWCA Civ 4 (http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/196

Jones v Padavatton
8/4.html) is a leading English decision on contract law. The decision demonstrates how
domestic agreements, such as in between a mother and daughter, are presumed not to be
legally binding unless there is clear intention.

Contents
Facts Court Court of Appeal
Judgment Decided 29 November 1968
See also Citation(s) [1968] EWCA Civ 4 (htt
External links p://www.bailii.org/ew/ca
ses/EWCA/Civ/1968/4.
html), [1969] 1 WLR
Facts 328; All ER 616

A mother, Mrs Violet Lalgee Jones, agreed with her daughter, Mrs Ruby Padavatton, that if Court membership
she would give up her secretary job at the Indian embassy in Washington DC and study for Judge(s) Lord Justice
the bar in England, the mother would pay maintenance (from Trinidad, East Indian descent). sitting Danckwerts, Lord
The mother gave monthly payments of 42 pounds and then bought a London house (the Justice Salmon, Lord
daughter moved out of a one-room flat in Acton to 181 Highbury Quadrant, Highbury) which Justice Fenton
she lived in and rented out. Then they had a quarrel while Mrs Padavatton was still Atkinson
completing her bar exams at Lincoln's Inn. The mother brought an action for possession of Keywords
the house. The daughter argued there was a binding contract that she could stay.
Creating legal relations,
enforceability
Judgment
The Court held that there was no binding contract. Although there would have been a contract if it was not the domestic parties
related, there was insufficient evidence to rebut the presumption against domestic arrangements. Also, the Court of Appeal stated
that the agreement would last until the daughter had passed her Bar finals; yet 5 years had elapsed and she had still not passed
them, therefore the contract had elapsed.

See also
Balfour v Balfour
Merritt v Merritt

External links
full text (https://web.archive.org/web/20080620005136/http://faculty.law.ubc.ca/biukovic/supplements/JonesvPadavatton.htm)

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This page was last edited on 28 October 2019, at 11:45 (UTC).

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