First National Bank plc, which is now known as Abbey National plc, has launched an Appeal Court challenge to a Shoreditch County Court decision dismissing its claim for possession of 19 Knightland Road, London E5.
The county court judge ruled that a legal charge that the bank held over the property to secure a loan of £51,500 should be set aside on the basis that one of the chargees had been unduly influenced by her husband to sign the 1989 credit agreement.
In the Court of Appeal, Josephine Haynes, counsel for the bank, argued that the judge had accepted that the wife had had the benefit of legal advice, and pointed out that the credit agreement had specified that borrowers must act by a solicitor.
She argued that the legal advice received by the wife meant that she had not been unduly influenced by her husband.
Ms Haynes added that the transaction had predated Barclays Bank v O’Brien, and that the bank had therefore not been required to take any further steps to safeguard its rights.
However, Latiff Adenekan, counsel for the wife, claimed that the wife had not received separate advice from the solicitor as to the risks involved in signing the document.
There was no evidence, he said, to show that the solicitor had advised her to take separate advice independently of her husband over the possibility that the matrimonial home could be repossessed by the bank in the event of default.
The hearing continues.
First National Bank plc v Achampong and others Court of Appeal (Arden LJ and Blackburne J) 11 March 2003.
Josephine Hayes (instructed by Needham & James, of Birmingham) appeared for the appellant; Latiff Adenekan (instructed by SC Pelentrides & Co) appeared for the second respondent; the first, third and fourth respondents did not appear and were not represented.
References: PLS News 13/3/03
