Walsh v Singh
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Judge Purle QC |
| Judgment Date | 15 December 2009 |
| Neutral Citation | [2009] EWHC 3219 (Ch) |
| Court | Chancery Division |
| Docket Number | Claim No: 7BM30614 |
| Date | 15 December 2009 |
[2009] EWHC 3219 (Ch)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE CHANCERY DIVISION
BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT REGISTRY
Birmingham Civil Justice Centre
The Priory Courts 33 Bull Street Birmingham 4 6DS
his Honour Judge Purle Qc
(sitting As A Judge Of The High Court)
Claim No: 7BM30614
John Brennan (instructed by Hawkins) appeared for the Claimant
Michael Roberts (instructed under the Bar's Public Access Scheme) appeared for the First Defendant
The Second Defendant did not appear and was not represented
Hearing dates: 23 rd to 27 th March, 2 nd and 3rd April 2009
The Parties
The Claimant (“Miss Walsh”) is a barrister. The First Defendant (“Mr Singh”) is a dentist. The Second Defendant (“the Trustee”) is a trustee of Mr Singh's SIPP. The Trustee played no part at the trial of this action. When therefore I refer to “the parties”, I am referring to Miss Walsh and Mr Singh and not the Trustee unless the context otherwise requires.
The parties lived together as a couple for a number of years from the end of 1997. They initially lived at Miss Walsh's house in Leicester, which she alone owned.
Vale Cottages and Other Land at Leire
Later, in April 1999, a property known as Vale Cottages in Leire, Leicestershire, was purchased in Mr Singh's name. Miss Walsh claims a 50% beneficial interest (or some other share) in that property under a constructive trust or proprietary estoppel. Mr Singh says Vale Cottages is wholly his beneficially.
At this time, Miss Walsh was training to become a barrister. She previously trained as a psychologist and was working as a Sales Manager for Colgate Palmolive when she met Mr Singh. She was called to the Bar and commenced pupillage in Leicester in 2000. She was then taken on as a tenant and established a thriving practice.
Miss Walsh did not contribute financially to the purchase price of £165,000 for Vale Cottages, but said she was promised a half share. She told me (and I accept) that she was very much in love with Mr Singh. She also said that she was concerned (because of her parents' previous experience of ending their working lives without owning their own home) that she should have a beneficial interest in the property (Vale Cottages) in which she and Mr Singh were to live. In addition, she regarded it as a badge of his commitment to her that he should acknowledge her half interest in Vale Cottages. She claimed that Mr Singh agreed to her having a half share on many occasions both before its purchase and subsequently, and specifically recalls 2 occasions before the purchase. The first occasion was when Mr Singh told her that, as he would be paying the mortgage, Vale Cottages would be in his sole name. He is then said to have confirmed, though she could not be sure about the actual words because it was so long ago, that Vale Cottages would be jointly owned and she would have a half share. The second occasion was over a pizza at her house when the commitment was repeated with Miss Walsh taking (she said) a much more serious tone.
I was a little surprised to be told by Miss Walsh both that she could not be sure about the actual words used on the first occasion because it was so long ago but that she could be sure that Mr Singh confirmed that Vale Cottages would be jointly owned and that she would have a half share. Leaving aside the technical contradiction between joint and shared ownership, nothing could be more specific than that, and I would have expected her to be sure about the actual words used if they were that specific.
As to the second occasion, she did not state any lack of certainty about the words used. However, the context of the discussion was that she did not wish their personal finances to be run in as haphazard a way as Mr Singh's business interests. This resulted in Mr Singh confirming (according to Miss Walsh) that her home was her home and she was entitled to have a joint say in it and be clear about decisions made. Without more, that said nothing about beneficial ownership, as Vale Cottages would be her home as she was to live there with Mr Singh. Nevertheless, she went on to say that, after pressing Mr Singh, he said that if anything went wrong she would be financially protected in that she would have half of the house. Miss Walsh also went on to say that Mr Singh promised to ensure her financial security if they ever split up, adding that the phrase “ensuring her financial security” was often used by him over the years.
Vale Cottages was seen by Miss Walsh as a suitable base for equestrian activities (she was a keen horsewoman). She claimed that she and Mr Singh had a shared dream of developing an equestrian centre and living at Vale Cottages indefinitely. Whether this can fairly be described as a “dream” on Mr Singh's part may be doubted, but he undoubtedly saw it as an avenue to go down, and their search for a property (and the purchase of Vale Cottages) was understood by family and acquaintances to be a search for and purchase of an “equestrian” property. In fact, Vale Cottages did not have enough land for a viable equestrian centre, though there was stabling and some 4 acres of land. The stabling had a sitting tenant who appeared to be protected, but who after a while left voluntarily. There was also adjoining land which might become (and did eventually become) available. So the idea of an equestrian centre, though not immediately achievable, was on the cards from the beginning. Moreover, early on, Mr Singh (who knew nothing about horses) purchased 2 ponies as a breeding pair – a stallion called Pointless and a mare called Burger. The stallion lived up to his name, and no breeding was achieved through his efforts. Mr Singh did, however, have it in mind that a breeding business could be used to secure planning permission to build an equine tied house. The breeding business would benefit, according to his witness statement, from “an equine orientated wife”. Though he did not say so explicitly, Miss Walsh clearly fitted the bill. This idea was developed subsequently when more land was purchased, a point I return to later.
Miss Walsh claimed to have rendered substantial assistance in searching for properties and eventually finding Vale Cottages, researching the protected tenancy point, carrying out initial works to put the property (which was very run down) into a useable state, researching the planning position and obtaining permissions (the most important of which was given in January 2002 for a much larger house of 12,000 sq. ft. in the grounds) and in supervising and contributing physically to subsequent renovation works in 2003. She also helped Mr Singh in other business activities generally, and was instrumental in helping him to acquire for his SIPP adjoining land, eventually giving up (after first going part-time) a promising career at the Bar (to which she has now returned) so as to devote herself to their joint venture of developing an equestrian centre. I consider the detail of that activity later, but first I should deal with the engagement.
The Engagement and the Ring
The parties became engaged in April 2001. It is in issue how long the engagement lasted. According to Mr Singh, Miss Walsh, dissatisfied with the lack of romantic ceremony attending the engagement, broke it off following an altercation and returned the ring to him within a year. However, Miss Walsh said the parties remained engaged until December 2005. She did return the ring to Mr Singh, but this was so that it could be resized. Mr Singh returned it to the jeweller who he had previously bought the ring from, and there it remained. Mr Singh also (then or subsequently) sent back another ring he had bought for Miss Walsh to the same jeweller, ostensibly for resizing, and that remained there, too, for a considerable period of time. This second ring was only returned to Miss Walsh shortly before the trial began. It is clear, therefore, that the fact that the engagement ring was returned to the jeweller is no necessary indication that Miss Walsh had given up ownership, for the same is true of the second ring.
As the nature of the relationship through to December 2005 may be important to the remainder of the issues I have to decide, it is appropriate that I should decide the issue of the engagement at the outset.
Generally, Miss Walsh was a more satisfactory witness than Mr Singh, though I do think that elements of her evidence were exaggerated or infected by wishful thinking. On the whole, though, her evidence was given with assurance and apparent truthfulness. On the specific issue of the engagement, and its duration, I much preferred her evidence to the evidence of Mr Singh. Her evidence was corroborated by the fact that a number of witnesses spoke in evidence of her and Mr Singh as an engaged couple, and their wedding plans were openly discussed in the presence of those individuals at a time when, according to Mr Singh, the engagement had been broken off. Mr Singh's answer to this was that they kept up the pretence in front of friends, relatives and others as that was Miss Walsh's wish. He portrayed her as someone living in a fantasy world. The relationship was forever up and down, and he never had the degree of emotional commitment of which Miss Walsh spoke. Yet he did become engaged, which was difficult to reconcile with the turbulent relationship that he portrayed. I have no doubt that the relationship did have its ups and downs. According to Mr Singh, completion of Vale Cottages coincided with a brief period when the parties were living apart, and he originally moved in alone, with Miss Walsh following not long after, following a reconciliation. He may have got the timing wrong for this, as the insurance proposal...
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