What Delimits Equitable Relief from Forfeiture?

Abstract

SHORT steps in a sequence of cases over just forty years have changed the dominant English understanding of equitable relief from forfeiture almost entirely. Each step has been volitional, yet taken without the judges evidently intending such large change or considering whether stare decisis permits it. That this has befallen a body of law that acquired its modern form 350 years ago is worrying.

Relief against forfeiture is routinely granted in relation to leases and mortgages. But relief in relation to licences and contractual rights has become controversial through the erroneous belief that equitable relief from forfeiture would disrupt such ordinary – and commercially-important – contracts. Vauxhall Motors Ltd v Manchester Ship Canal Co. Ltd [2018] EWCA Civ 1100; [2019] 2 W.L.R. 330 makes clear the issues involved and the legal cul-de-sac to which this misunderstanding leads.

Keywords: equity, property, licences, relief from forfeiture

JEL Classification: K10, K11, K12, K19, K40