Bishopgate Motor Finance Corporation Ltd v Transport Brakes Ltd [1949] 1 KB 322
Citation:Bishopgate Motor Finance Corporation Ltd v Transport Brakes Ltd [1949] 1 KB 322
Rule of thumb:What happens if you purchase movable property from someone who was not the owner, and the owner comes looking for it back? If the seller stole the property from the third party or falsified who they were to the third party obtain it, then the buyer must give the property back to the original owner. If the seller had the property on hire-purchase & therefore had good title, then the purchase does not have to give the property to the third party. This is the position at common, however, statute can adjust this in some instances.
Judgment:
The facts of this case were that a car was taken under a hire purchase agreement. The person with the car under hire purchase then auctioned it at a market where it did not sell. The driver then sold it on to someone else by a private agreement who had seen the car at auction but wanted to pay less than the starting price. The original company then sought the return of the car from the current owner. The Court held that the car did not have to be returned to the hire purchase company because the person who purchased it saw it being sold at a valid market seller, and this was an exception to the rule of nemo dat, ‘In the development of our law, two principles have striven for mastery. The first is for the protection of property: no one can give a better title than he himself possesses. The second is the protection of commercial transactions: the person who takes in good faith and for value without notice should get a good title. The first principle has held sway for a long time, but it has been modified by the common law itself and by statute so as to meet the needs of our own times’, Lord Denning.
Warning: This is not professional legal advice. This is not professional legal education advice. Please obtain professional guidance before embarking on any legal course of action. This is just an interpretation of a Judgment by persons of legal insight & varying levels of legal specialism, experience & expertise. Please read the Judgment yourself and form your own interpretation of it with professional assistance.