The wife of a Surrey businessman today failed in an appeal court bid to save the couples home in Tadworth from being repossessed by National Westminster Bank.
The case centred on a legal charge over the property at 7 Woodlands Park, Boxhill Road, Tadworth, that Barbara Leggatt signed in favour of the bank in September 1990 to guarantee all liabilities of her husband Brians civil engineering business. Mrs Leggatt claimed that the deal was to her disadvantage and that she had been unduly influenced by her husband in agreeing to it.
The appeal judges were told that husbands business, which he formed with a partner in 1974, at first proved very successful and provided the Leggatts with their main source of income. However, in 1992 the partnership became insolvent and the bank made demands for payment under the terms of the charge.
Then, in 1995, the bank brought court action against the couple that ended with Judge Hull granting it an order for possession at Epsom County Court in March this year.
Dismissing the wifes appeal against the order, Jonathan Parker LJ said today that if Mrs Leggatt had not signed the 1990 charge, the partnership business would have collapsed. Under the circumstances, he was satisfied that it was to her financial advantage to sign it.
National Westminster Bank v Leggatt and another Court of Appeal (Kennedy, Waller and Jonathan Parker LJJ) 19 October 2000
Roland Higgs (instructed by Georgiou Nicholas) appeared for the appellant; David Wolfson (instructed by Denton Wilde Sapte) appeared for the respondent.
PLS News 20/10/00
