Evan Price represented the successful Applicant in the claim in Stanislaw Sokolowski v Together Commercial Finance Ltd & Ors. In this case, a claim to rectify the registered title to the property and have the Applicant restored as the registered proprietor of the property was successful. The Applicant’s property had been the object of inheritance fraud. The Third Respondent had falsified what purported to be the Applicant’s Will. The Third Respondent, who did not appear in the case, fraudulently assented the property to himself and then fraudulently sold the property to the Second Respondent. The sale occurred while the Applicant resided with his son in the wake of Covid and visited the property infrequently.
Extraordinarily, the evidence in the case included the Applicant proving that he was still alive (by attending at the trial). The Judge went on to consider that, although paragraph 6 of schedule 4 of the Land Registration Act 2002 constrains alteration of the register to correct a mistake where this would amount to rectification, it would be unjust for the alteration not to be made under paragraph 6(2)(b). Accordingly, the Applicant was restored as the registered proprietor of the property he had purchased in 1990.
