In Ha Yuet Chi v Yeung Yiu Keung ([2010] HKEC 1726), a mother and son were joint tenants of a flat in Chevalier Garden in Shatin. The mother claimed that she had provided the purchase price and had not intended to make a gift to her son. She claimed to be the sole beneficial owner. The District Court thought that the son had probably made some contribution to mortgage payments. It invoked Stack v Dowden. A precise arithmetic approach to contributions was not necessary in family cases; rather one should look for the parties’ intentions having regard to family history and other relevant factors (para. 35). The court rejected the contention that the mother was intended to be solely beneficially entitled.
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November 15, 2011 at 12:08 pm |
It seems to me that in family cases, unless the agreement or common intention agreed to have the extent of beneficial ownership to be divided by exact quantifiable shares, otherwise, after concluding on the existence of a trust, it is likely that the Court would not go further into calculating how much each party owns (arithmetic approach) but rather to use a severance approach (50/50)