The Law of Trusts and Unjust Enrichment
- The Married Women's Property Act
- Resulting Trusts
- Constructive Trusts
- Unjust Enrichment

Read an article on Unjust Enrichment  
by Len Fishman.

Where The Family Property Act does not provide a remedy, such as in the case of the unmarried or same sex couple (who have not lived together for three years), but also in certain cases between married people, the courts will look to the area of trusts and unjust enrichment to provide relief.

The Married Women's Property Act
Questions of trust or unjust enrichment find their way before the court under this obscure statute. The M.W.P.A. contains little substantive law. It was enacted to certify that women had equal rights to hold and deal with property and gave the court a summary means of resolving disputes. It is now applicable to both sexes in a heterosexual marriage and it gives the court jurisdiction to deal with these equitable issues. It has no application to same sex couples, which is a gap in the law.

Resulting Trusts
In lay person's terms a "resulting trust" occurs where someone holds property in his or her name for the benefit of another, perhaps as an accommodation, where the parties' intentions were that they were to share the property in some other fashion. An example of this might be where A holds title to property paid for by B, as a favour to B, B can demand the transfer back at any time and if A resists, he should be able to prove a resulting trust.

Constructive Trusts
A "constructive trust" is one imposed by the court where, for example, there is no express agreement about title, but the conduct of the parties or their contributions would make it unconscionable for the court to allow one to keep the whole of the property. One of the parties may have put in the money to build the house, for example, but the other one did all the work of building it. Having put the title in the name of the money supplier only, it would be unfair on dissolution of the relationship to let that person keep all the profit.

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