ABSTRACT
There are circumstances in which the ownership of property will not be clear because a transfer of property has failed or is incomplete, or because a group of people have contributed to the acquisition of that property without allocating title clearly. In such situations, the doctrine of resulting trusts operates to resolve those questions of ownership. Resulting trusts arise in two quite different contexts: either to restore the equitable interest in property to its original beneficial owner in circumstances in which a transfer of that property has failed;8 or to recognise the equitable proprietary rights of someone who has contributed to the purchase price of property with an intention that she take some property rights in that property.9 While the most satisfactory definition of the resulting trust remains a subject for debate, it is suggested that the resulting trust is best thought of as being limited to these two categories.10 It is suggested that, by extrapolation from the majority judicial opinion,11
these contexts should be recognised as being in truth very different forms of trust within the blanket expression ‘resulting trust’.
