Proprietary claims and unjust enrichment

Abstract

This thesis explains when an unjust enrichment gives rise to proprietary restitution. It argues that not all unjust enrichments lead to a proprietary response, and that this can be explained on the basis of autonomy. The original contribution of this thesis is it demonstrates that when a defendant is unjustly enriched by a claimant’s mistaken payment, and from the outset the claimant’s purpose for making the transfer is impossible to carry out, only then is proprietary restitution available. This is because when a claimant’s purpose for transferring the enrichment can never be fulfilled, there is no reason to bind the claimant to the transfer, and at no point does the defendant have a reason to retain the enrichment. As there is no justification for upholding the transfer, the goal of autonomy protection justifies the imposition of a resulting trust. It is shown that once it is accepted that the foundations of proprietary restitution are based on the notion of impossibility, one can adequately reconcile the case law.

Date of Award	25 Aug 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Aston University
Supervisor	David Salmons (Supervisor)