Pilcher v Rawlins (1872) LR 7 Ch App 259
TRUSTS – LEGAL ESTATES – EQUAL EQUITES – DEFENCE OF BONA FIDE PURCHASER
Facts
A father settled real estate on trust for his children. One of the trustees, P, was the uncle of the beneficiaries. The trustees advanced money to R on the security of a mortgage (the mortgage deed explained the existence of the trust). Two of the trustees died leaving P as the sole trustee. P and R devised a fraud whereby the property would be mortgaged to S and L, who had no notice of the trust or the existence of the beneficiaries’ equitable interest. The fraud was revealed and the beneficiaries sought a declaration that S and L took legal title subject to their equitable proprietary rights in the property and an order that it be reconveyed to the trust.
Issues
This case called for a consideration of how the competing interests of innocent parties ought to be balanced, where it was not possible to give effect to one without unduly prejudicing an equally blameless party. Moreover, the court were required to address the extent of the defence available to a bona fide purchaser for value, without notice of any pre-existing equitable interests.
Decision/Outcome
The court found in favour of S and L, whom thus took their charge free of B’s equitable rights. S and L had acted diligently and reasonably believed they had taken good title, they had ‘neither knowledge nor means of knowledge’ of the trust (at 274, per Mellish LJ); where the equities were equal, as was the case here, the law must prevail.
Updated 20 March 2026
This article accurately summarises the facts, issues, and outcome of Pilcher v Rawlins (1871–72) LR 7 Ch App 259, a foundational case on the bona fide purchaser defence in equity. The legal principles described remain good law. The doctrine that a bona fide purchaser for value of a legal estate without notice of a prior equitable interest takes free of that interest continues to be recognised in English law, though its practical significance has been substantially reduced in the context of registered land by the Land Registration Act 2002. Under that Act, which governs the vast majority of land transactions in England and Wales today, the doctrine of notice has largely been displaced in favour of the system of overriding interests and the register: see in particular sections 29 and 132 of the 2002 Act. The bona fide purchaser defence retains greater relevance in the context of unregistered land and in relation to personal property. Readers should bear this statutory context in mind when applying the principles in Pilcher v Rawlins to modern land law problems.
