''Kleinwort Benson Ltd v Birmingham CC''
9964 All ER 733 is an
English unjust enrichment law case, concerning to what extent enrichment of the defendant must be at the expense of the claimant. It rejected a defence of "passing on" the gain against a claim of unjust enrichment.
Facts
Kleinwort Benson, a bank, paid
Birmingham City Council money under
interest rate swap agreements that were later declared to be ''
ultra vires'' and
void by the
House of Lords.
['' Hazell v Hammersmith and Fulham LBC'' 9922 AC 1] The council argued it did not have to repay the money because the bank had passed on its losses through hedging transactions long before.
Judgment
The
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...
rejected that there could be a passing on defence. It rejected that there was any analogy to compensating for loss, so that it could be avoided or passed on. First, the payments received by the bank under the hedge contract were not causally connected with the payments of the bank under the swap contract. Second, the claims in unjust enrichment are not subject to a restriction on the defendant’s gain that it must correspond with loss.
Evans LJ
Sir Anthony Howell Meurig Evans, (born 11 June 1934) is an internationally known jurist, judge, and barrister, and a former Lord Justice of Appeal.
He currently holds the office of Chief Justice of the Dubai International Financial Centre C ...
gave the leading judgment, referring to American, Australian and Canadian authority outlining the problems of a passing on defence.
Saville LJ gave the second judgment.
Morritt LJ concurred.
See also
*
English unjust enrichment law
*
Local authorities swaps litigation
Notes
References
Bibliography
*{{cite book , first1=Robert , last1=Goff , author-link1=Robert Goff, Baron Goff of Chieveley , first2=Gareth , last2=Jones , author-link2=Gareth Jones (lawyer) , title=
Goff and Jones on the Law of Unjust Enrichment , date=2011 , edition=8th , editor-link1=Charles Mitchell (academic) , editor-first1=Charles , editor-last1=Mitchell , editor-first2=Paul , editor-last2=Mitchell , editor-first3=Stephen , editor-last3=Watterson , publisher=Sweet & Maxwell , isbn=978-1-84703-910-1
English unjust enrichment case law
English derivatives case law
Court of Appeal (England and Wales) cases
1996 in United Kingdom case law