Case considering duties owed by the parties to a joint venture to each other. Thomas Barr entered into a joint venture with Hawkhill to purchase and resell Omne House (an office building at Riverside Park in Irvine). Hawkhill, which was controlled by a Mr Gilchrist, sold Omne house to Fearann of which Mr Gilchrist was a director along with his wife (who also owned all of the shares).  Fearann was not a party to the joint venture.

In response to Mr Barr’s claims for payment of half of the sale proceeds, Mr Gilchrist argued that Hawkhill had various outstanding claims for payment in respect of other developments (which were the subject of separate court proceedings) and the property had been transferred in an attempt to improve its position in respect of these outstanding claims.

In granting summary decree (for payment of half of the sale proceeds), Lord Hodge found that Hawkhill had acted in breach of trust. He confirmed that a joint venture is a species of partnership and that the sale of the property to Fearann in order to improve its position in relation to the other outstanding claims amounted to a breach of fiduciary duty.

The full judgement is available from Scottish Courts here.

All of our property and conveyancing case summaries are contained in the LKS Property and Conveyancing Casebook here.