Disclaimer: This work was produced by one of our expert legal writers, as a learning aid to help law students with their studies.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of LawTeacher.net. Any information contained in this case summary does not constitute legal advice and should be treated as educational content only.

Beswick v Beswick - 1968

283 words (1 pages) Case Summary

28th Sep 2021 Case Summary Reference this In-house law team

Jurisdiction / Tag(s): UK Law

Legal Case Summary

Beswick v Beswick [1968] AC 58

Contract law – Privity of contract – Specific performance

Facts

PB was in poor health and agreed with the defendant, his nephew, that he would transfer the trade and good will of his coal business to him on the basis that the nephew employed him as a consultant for the rest of his life and paid him for this. The nephew also agreed to pay PBs wife after PB died for the rest of her life. She was not a party to the agreement. Upon the death of PB, the nephew paid PB’s wife once but then not again. PBs widow brought an action as administrator of PB’s estate and also in her personal capacity claiming for specific performance.

Issue

PB’s widow raised two interesting questions for the court to consider. The first was whether the widow, as an administrator to PB’s estate, could claim for an order of specific performance for PB’s nephew to honour his agreement. It was also important to see how the court weighed this claim alongside her claim on a personal level, which that she could claim as a party to the contract between her late husband and nephew.

Held

The court granted the widow an order of specific performance for the payment owed by PB’s nephew as an administrator to her husband’s estate. The court held that the damages would also not be limited due to the loss that had been caused to PB’s estate. However, the court found that PB’s widow could not claim under her personal capacity as she was a third party to the contract and was not a party to the original agreement.

Cite This Work

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing stye below:

Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.

Related Services

View all

Related Content

Jurisdictions / Tags

Content relating to: "UK Law"

UK law covers the laws and legislation of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Essays, case summaries, problem questions and dissertations here are relevant to law students from the United Kingdom and Great Britain, as well as students wishing to learn more about the UK legal system from overseas.

Related Articles