What is the ratio of Re London Wine Co. Ltd (1986)

Question 1

What certainty does this case deal with?

Answer 1

This case deals with certainty of subject matter.

Question 2

Re London Wine Co Ltd (1986)

Answer 2

In Re London Wine Co Ltd (1986), a wine company offered a service where you could buy from their stocks and they would hold it for you until it was needed for a fee.

Question 3

What was the issue in Re London Wine co?

Answer 3

The company went bankrupt and the issue emerged of whether the customers had any proprietary rights over the wine held in the company’s cellar. However, none of the bottles had been separated, they were all held in a bulk.

Question 4

What did Oliver J hold?

Answer 4

Oliver J held that the customers would only be entitled to assert proprietary rights as beneficiaries under a trust over any wine held in the cellar if each customer could demonstrate that particular, identifiable bottles of wine had been segregated from the general stock held in the cellar and held separately to their account. If so, those identifiable bottles of wine would be held on trust for the claimant.

Question 5

what would happen if the wine wasn’t segregated?

Answer 5

However, if the wine hadn’t been segregated (whether in breach of contract or not), there would not be any proprietary rights over any wine in the cellar.

Question 6

Was there a trust?

Answer 6

On these facts, there had been no such segregation and therefore there was no trust.

Question 7

Orthodox approach

Answer 7

This approach is referred to as ‘the orthodox approach’ and was reaffirmed in Re Goldcorp Exchange (1995).