Ratio Decidendi
The Statute of Frauds cannot be used as an instrument of fraud. Where a person acquires land on an oral understanding to hold it on trust for another, equity will enforce the trust despite the lack of written evidence.
Hechos
Boustead purchased coffee estates at auction on an oral agreement to hold them on trust for the Comtesse de la Rochefoucauld. He later claimed absolute ownership.
Resumen de la sentencia
Lindley LJ held that equity would not allow the statute to be used to perpetrate a fraud. Boustead held the estates on trust.
Citas clave
"It is a fraud on the part of a person to whom land is conveyed as a trustee, and who knows it was so conveyed, to deny the trust and claim the land as his own."
— Lindley LJ
Tratamiento posterior
Good law
Established that statute of frauds cannot be used as an engine of fraud.