Nicholas Grundy QC and Laura Williamson were instructed by the London Borough of Haringey in an appeal which raised interesting issues in relation to the law of agency, ratification and surrender.
The case had an unusual factual background, with three tenancy agreements having been signed at various times by different members of the same family in relation to the same property. The central question in the case concerned whether the husband had acted as agent for his wife when he signed the first agreement, which purported to be a joint tenancy but which his wife had never signed, and which the husband had subsequently surrendered, a matter of days later, when he was granted a joint tenancy in the names of himself and his mother (both of whom signed the new agreement) instead.
Nick and Laura were able to persuade the Court of Appeal to overturn findings of fact made by the High Court Judge at first instance, on the basis that there was insufficient evidence of the consent necessary to support a finding of agency.