We are delighted to introduce Favourite Cases, a new project for August, which takes a look at interesting and important chancery and commercial decisions.

Our first contributor is Justin Holmes with Re Cathcart, an 1890s case that established the unusual general costs rule which still applies in Court of Protection property and affairs litigation.

Justin says: “Re Cathcart is one of my favourite cases, although it has a tragedy at its heart. It has a melodramatic plot which could have easily come from a novel by Wilkie Collins, it involves wealth, skulduggery and very bad behaviour, and it reminds us of the way in which Victorian society was so concerned with property rights that the human rights of people who were incapable of making their own decisions were often largely ignored…”

You can read the full case summary here.

Re Cathcart is reported at [1892] 1 Ch 549 and [1893] 1 Ch 466.

Photo © Roger Temple (cc-by-sa/2.0).