Weekly Review: 21st – 25th January 2013

Deed of Mutual Covenant: construction: interpretation

The charging provisions in a Deed of Mutual Covenant must be interpreted in  accordance with the usual canons of contractual interpretation. The search is for the meaning that the parties must reasonably be taken to have intended having regard to the words used, the overall context of the document in which they occur and the parties’ purpose. This is to be assessed from the perspective of a reasonable person having the same background knowledge as the parties (Thorogood Estates Ltd v Robinson Heights (IO).

Licences: contractual licences: notice: termination: implied terms

An implied term as to notice in a contractual licence must take into account the whole of the circumstances in which the license came into existence (Minister of Health v Bellotti).

If the contractual licence is entirely silent about notice and a term has to be implied, the nature and requirements of the term to be implied must be settled according to the ordinary rules governing the implication of a term (Australia Blue Metal Ltd v Hughes)

Proprietary estoppel: detrimental reliance: pregnancy

A woman allowing herself to become pregnant can be detrimental reliance for proprietary estoppel purposes where there is the necessary causal link between this and the assurance as to an interest in property (Li Yuk Ying v Wong Yuet Kam).