Contract Law - Seminar 13 Intention to create legal relations Balfour v Balfour [1919] 2 KB 571 - husband and wife domestic agreement · Defendant worked in Ceylon, came to England with his wife on holiday . He later returned to Ceylon alone . Claimant stayed in England for health reasons . Defendant promised to pay the claimant £30 per month as maintenance, but failed to keep up the payments when the marriage broke down · The wife sued . Held that there was no consideration for the promise to pay £30 and agreements between husbands and wives have no intent to be legally binding Jones v Padavatton [1969] 1 WLR 328 2 - mother and daughter domestic agreement · Mother and daughter came to an arrangement where the mother agreed to maintain her daughter if she agreed to study for the bar . The daughter took out her studies and the mother paid her an allowance. · Arrangement altered and the mother agreed to provide a house in which her daughter could reside whilst she studied. . Mother and daughter fell into dispute as to the occupancy of the house, and the mother sought possession · Daughter argued the agreement between her, and her mother was a legally binding contract and she should be entitled to continue to live in the house . Held there was no intention to create legally binding contracts because there is a presumption that family arrangements are based on mutual trust . This can be rebutted but the lack of formality regarding the agreement between mother and daughter indicated there was no intention and the daughter had no defence to her mothers' claim for the house Merritt v Merritt [1970] 1 WLR 1121 . The husband left his wife . They met to make arrangements for the future . Husband agreed to pay £40 per month for maintenance, from which the wife could pay the mortgage . When the mortgage was paid off, he said he would transfer the house from joint names into the wifes' name . This was written down and signed but the husband then refused to pay it · Held that when the agreement was made, the husband and wife were no longer living together and therefore there must have been an intention to create legal relations, as they would base their future actions on it - the intention was evident in the writing Simpkins v Pays [1955] 3 All ER 10 - domestic agreement - legally binding - lottery implications · The defendant, her granddaughter and the claimant, a paying lodger shared a house . They all contributed one-third of the stake in entering a competition in the defendants name
· One week a prize of £750 was won but on the defendants refusal to share the prize, the claimant sued for a third . Held that the presence of the outsider rebutted the presumption that it was a family agreement and not intended to be binding . The