Positioned within contract law, this work deals with the assignment of things in action – debts, contractual rights, etc. It deals only with voluntary assignment and not compulsory assignment as with bankruptcy or liquidation.
This book is intended for the practitioner who has a problem, issue or case involving the voluntary assignment of things in action, either in giving advice or preparing litigation. Following the approach of titles such as Chitty on Contracts, this work enables the practitioner to find a statement of the law and then (if necessary) the authority that supports it.
New for this edition:
- A consideration of the potential effects of Brexit and the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015
- Incorporation of new statutory and case law since the last edition
- Added references to UK-based text (Snell’s Equity) for the benefit of practitioners of English law
Other features:
- Provides a thorough statement of the law of voluntary assignment including, for each issue or topic, the authority that supports it
- Goes through the nature of assignment, commencing with a definition of assignment, before outlining and giving examples of choses in action; detailing the requirements for assignment; and looking at the relationship of assignment and other transactions
- Examines the law of assignments under section 136 of the Law of Property Act 1925, explaining its effect and requirements, and including the assignment of an equitable chose under section 136
- Goes through equitable assignment and agreements to assign, covering both an equitable assignment of an equitable chose and of a legal chose
- Deals with restrictions on assignment, covering contractual terms forbidding assignment, prohibition by statute or public policy, and personal contracts and covenants
- Covers the position of creditors, trustees in bankruptcy and personal representatives of the assignor, and the liquidator of an assignor company
- Analyses the problems associated with priorities, including those between competing assignees, competing holders of interests in shares, and an assignee and a chargee under a charge created by a company
- Considers special priority rules and variation of priorities
- Establishes defences available to the obligor under assignments subject to equities, including defences that impeach the existence or enforceability of the chose in action assigned, set-off, and right of retainer
- Reviews available financing devices involving assignment, with coverage of financing of receivables, factoring, block discounts, and securitisation
- Looks at situations where there is assignment of obligations or liabilities
- Addresses conflict of laws, centring on the law applicable to contractual obligations under Article 14 “the Rome I Regulation”, as well as Transactions outside Article 14
- Covers key case law, including analysis of the rule in Dearle v Hall (1828) on priorities between competing assignees; Linden Gardens Trust Ltd v Lenesta Sludge Disposals Ltd (1994) on prohibition of assignment; Pan Ocean Shipping Co Ltd v Credit Corp Ltd (1994) on position of the assignee; Raiffeeisen Zentralbank Osterreich AG v Five Star General Trading LLC (2001) as indicative of the correct interpretation of Article 14 of Regulation (EU) 593/2008 ("the Rome I Regulation")
- Written in the Common Law Library style to enable the practitioner to find a statement of the law then (if necessary) go to the authority that supports it.
