No oral joint venture agreement

The Court of Appeal in E J W Builders Ltd and Another v Marshall and Others [2026] EWCA Civ 911 dismissed an appeal from His Honour Judge Paul Matthews and held that he had been entitled to find that no partnership or contractual joint venture had been agreed orally between the parties on the basis of which the claimants were entitled to a share of any profits made from the redevelopment of a site which had previously been run as a hotel. The appeal was one on the facts and the case illustrates how difficult it is to succeed in an appeal against a finding of fact made at first instance. This was not a case in which the judge had been "plainly wrong" in the findings that he made. On the contrary, the Court of Appeal found that the judge had been entitled to make the findings which he had made and the appeal was therefore dismissed.