Davies and Another v Davies [2016] EWCA Civ 463

In April 2016 Adam acted in the widely publicised “Cowshed Cinderella” proprietary estoppel case Davies and Another v Davies [2016] EWCA Civ 463.

Adam was junior to Leslie Blohm QC, also of St John’s, for the case’s second visit to the Court of Appeal (Adam’s article following the case’s first trip to the Court of Appeal is available here). The second appeal in Davies concerned the quantum awarded to Eirian Davies, who had worked long hours for minimal pay on the strength of various promises made to her by her parents. In the second appeal the award which Eirian received was reduced, with the court totting up her financial and non-financial detriment and then granting Eirian the total produced by adding the two together. While the case arguably represents the Court of Appeal exhibiting a robustness, and perhaps even a reductive quality, in the face of the complexities of the doctrine, the analysis of non-financial detriment, labelled “imponderable”, was not particularly structured or deep. The fact that this was so might mean that there is room for the higher courts to revisit the doctrine yet again in the future.