Facts
- A man and woman owned a property as joint tenants
- The woman became ill and wanted to give her share to her brother
- She executed the memorandum of transfer but did not get the title deed
- When she died, the husband asserted his ownership
- The brother argued he had an equitable interest via the assignment
Issue
- Did Ms Patton successfully assign the transfer of property?
Held
- It was not valid because Ms Patton had not done all that was necessary to effect the transfer.
- But may acquire an equitable interest.
- However, equity will not perfect an imperfect gift.
- The woman had not done enough to effect the transfer.
- Donor must have done everything necessary to give effect to the transfer; must ‘arm’ the transferee.
- Ms Patton had failed to lodge the memorandum with a duplicate Certificate of Title and did not tell bank that she was transferring property to Corrin and request a duplicate to allow Corrin to lodge the documents at the Lands Titles Office.
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Ms Patton failed to alienate interest and transfer it in equity.
Full Text
The full text is available here: https://jade.io/summary/mnc/1990/HCA/12
-- Download Corin v Patton (1990) 169 CLR 540 as PDF --

