- William Kanaan
Fraud-based claims released by settlement agreement, despite absence of express words to that effect
The High Court struck out most of a claim against multiple defendants concerning the sale of the claimant's car collection. In so doing, it held that various fraud-based claims pleaded against the defendants had been released by a settlement agreement between the parties, despite the agreement containing no express wording to that effect.
The judge rejected any suggestion that previous case law had stated any principle of law that express words were required for a release of either unknown claims or claims in fraud and emphasised that there was no rule requiring the use of express words referring to claims based on fraud or dishonesty if a release is to extend to them.