Ongoing updating of the guides has brought me to Equity and Trusts. A bit of a “marmite subject” I think? Personally, I have always liked it, but I think there are plenty who feel otherwise and perhaps fewer with a take it or leave it approach.

So, here’s a blatant attempt to engage some of those who don’t share my enthusiasm but who like football. What do you think of the case of Imageview Management Limited v Jack? My view is that Equity generally makes its way round to a fair outcome, but this decision does seem a bit harsh.

For those who don’t remember the case (or haven’t got to it yet) it’s about a football agent. He was recruited to place a footballer in a club in return for agent’s fees. A club was identified, a deal was done and then the agent made a mistake. He took money from the club to assist them in getting a visa for his player and didn’t mention that little agreement to the player. Bad decision for sure!

Now, how to deal with this, what would be the right outcome? Make the agent give the visa money to the player? Refund the visa money to the club? That would seem ok to me but it’s not what happened. The agent had to repay the visa money and every last penny of his agency commission back to the player and the liability on the player to make future agency payments was cancelled.

The moral? It’s a really bad idea to breach your fiduciary duties, the requirement to account for profits can be very onerous indeed. No doubt this case sends a very strong public policy message and I’m sure that’s all to the good, but I am left feeling rather sorry for the agent and I never think of myself as the sympathetic type!

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