“Court creates personal remedy against innocent recipients of wrongly distributed estate funds”
Caleb Diplock's will left his residuary estate to charity for purposes that were later held to be invalid under the mortmain rules. The executors had already distributed £203,000 to various charitable institutions before the invalidity was discovered. The next-of-kin sought to recover these funds from the recipient charities.
Whether innocent recipients of funds wrongfully distributed from an estate could be held personally liable to account for those funds to the rightful beneficiaries
The Court of Appeal held that a personal action lay against the innocent recipients of the misapplied funds, requiring them to account for the money received
This case established the fundamental principle of personal liability for recipients of misapplied trust funds, creating the 'Diplock remedy' that remains central to restitution and trust law today.
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OSCOLA Citation
Re Diplock [1948] Ch 465 (CA)
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