Facts
- The Privy Council were presented with a case in which trustees of a pension fund had accepted, without authority, a large deposit from the defendant, which would increase payments to him later in life
- The claimants wished to give the payment back to the defendant, as it was accepted without authority
Issue
- Was the acceptance binding
Decision
Reasoning
- The trustees had the apparent authority to deal with all administrative functions relating to contributors’ money
- The trustees were the only point of contact for contributors such as the defendant
- The pension fund (principal) had organised its affairs in such a way as to grant apparent authority to make the acceptance of the payment binding
- The case did not disagree with either The Ocean Frost [1986] or First Energy v Hungarian International Bank [1993]
