Esanda Finance Corporation Ltd v Reyes & Ors [2001] NSWSC 234

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : Esanda Finance Corporation Ltd v Reyes & Ors [2001] NSWSC 234 CURRENT JURISDICTION: Equity FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 5084/97 HEARING DATE(S) : 28/02/00, 29/02/00, 2/03/00, 13/04/00, 14/04/00, 19/04/00, 20/04/00, 26/04/00, 28/04/00, 3/05/00 (Final submissions received 13 September 2000) JUDGMENT DATE : 12 April 2001

Esanda Finance Corporation Limited (Plaintiff) Lope Reyes (First Defendant) Buu Phuong Thai (Second Defendant) PARTIES : Teresita Reyes (Third Defendant) Helen Dinh (Fourth Defendant) Virginia Castro Malong (Fifth Defendant) Ita Dinh (Sixth Defendant) Hong Kiet Dinh (Seventh Defendant) JUDGMENT OF : Simos J

T S Hale SC (Plaintiff) No appearance (1st Defendant) COUNSEL : D H Murr SC (2nd, 4th, 6th & 7th Defendants) L J W Aitken (3rd Defendant) B David (Solicitor) (5th Defendant) Kemp Strang (Plaintiff) No appearance (1st Defendant) SOLICITORS : W Chan & Co (2nd, 4th, 6th & 7th Defendants) Colbron & Associates (3rd Defendant) B David & Assoc (5th Defendant) CATCHWORDS : Constructive trust - Fraudulent misappropriation - Held, fraudulently misappropriated monies were impressed with a constructive trust in favour of true owner of the monies - Breach of trust - knowing assistance in breach of trust - Held, monies received from wrongdoer by defendants in circumstances indicating breach of trust were held by defendants upon a constructive trust for the true owner of the monies. Barnes v Addy (1874) 9 CH App 244 Black v S Freedman & Co (1910) 12 CLR 105 Consul Development Pty Ltd v DPC Estates Pty Ltd (1975) 132 CLR 373 CASES CITED : Gertsch v Atsas & Ors (1999) NSWSC 898 In re Montagu's Settlement Trust (1987) 1 Ch 264 Muschinski v Dodds (1985) 160 CLR 583 Royal Brunei Airlines v Tan (1995) 2 AC 378 DECISION : Plaintiff's claims against the first, second, fourth, sixth and seventh defendants upheld.