Resulting Trusts after Bosanac v Commissioner of Taxation [2022] HCA 34
On 2 August 2023, the Obligations Group held a panel discussion featuring Associate Professor Lisa Sarmas (Melbourne Law School), Professor William Swadling (University of Oxford) and Professor John Mee (University College Cork) on the recent Bosanac v Commissioner of Taxation [2022] HCA 34 decision.
In October last year the High Court of Australia handed down its significant decision in Bosanac v Commissioner of Taxation [2022] HCA 34, which concerned the relevant trusts principles and equitable ‘presumptions’ to be applied in the determination of beneficial ownership of the family home. The Court unanimously held that Ms Bosanac was the sole beneficial owner of a home purchased in her name and jointly financed with her husband. The decision touches on important doctrinal and conceptual debates in trusts law also raises complex questions regarding gender and Equity’s presumptions. Associate Professor Lisa Sarmas, Professor William Swadling and Professor John Mee offered their thoughts on the decision followed by a general discussion.
Photo by Tom Rumble on Unsplash
About the Speakers
Lisa Sarmas is an academic at Melbourne Law School, with expertise in Equity and Trusts. She has a particular interest in Equity’s approaches to allocating family property and in Equity’s interaction with issues of gender justice and social power more generally, She has published broadly in these areas.
William Swadling is Professor of Law at the University of Oxford, where he chairs the faculty's teaching groups in Restitution, Trusts, and Personal Property. Before coming to Oxford, he held posts at a number of other universities, including University College London and Trinity College, Cambridge. He is the editor of a number of books, including The Quistclose Trust: Critical Essays. He is particularly interested in the intersection between trusts/property and restitution, and a number of his articles on this topic have been cited in the English courts, most notably in Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale v Islington LBC [1996] AC 669. He has held visiting professorships at the University of Hamburg, Seoul National University, the National University of Singapore, University of Paris II (Panthéon-Assas), Renmin University, and the University of Leuven. He is an academic associate at One Essex Court (chambers of Lord Grabiner QC), a Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne, and an academic member of the Chancery Bar Association.
Professor John Mee is a graduate of University College Cork and Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto. He later completed a PhD at Trinity College Dublin and was recently awarded an LLD by the National University of Ireland. He was called to the Irish Bar in 1990. He has lectured in University College Cork since 1989 and is a former Dean of the Faculty of Law at UCC. His research interests are in the areas of Equity and Trusts, Land Law, and Family Property, with a special interest in resulting trusts, trusts of the family home, and the law of proprietary estoppel. He has published three books, as well as articles and chapters in international journals and edited collections. He is an academic member of the English Chancery Bar Association.