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Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly

THE RESURRECTION OF PROPRIETARY ESTOPPEL

Thorner v. Majors

Is proprietary estoppel a sub-species of promissory estoppel? Must the claimant believe that the assurance received is legally binding on the defendant for detrimental reliance to be reasonable? The House of Lords’ decision in Yeoman’s Row Management Ltd v. Cobbe 1 controversially suggested that both questions should be answered in the affirmative, fuelling fears that the doctrine was effectively “dead”.2 Less than a year later, its decision

1. [2008] UKHL 55; [2008] 1 WLR 1752.
2. See eg, B McFarlane and A Robertson, “The Death of Proprietary Estoppel” [2009] LMCLQ 449; Sir Terence Etherton, “Constructive Trusts and Proprietary Estoppel: the search for clarity and principle” [2009] Conv 104; cited Thorner v. Majors [2009] UKHL 18, [31], per Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe.

CASE AND COMMENT

437

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