The Limits to Estoppels

Ben McFarlane
(2013) 7(3) Journal of Equity 250

Ben McFarlane, ‘The Limits to Estoppels’ (2013) 7(3) Journal of Equity 250

Abstract

This article considers the conventional limits placed on the operation of each of estoppel by representation, promissory estoppel, and proprietary estoppel, and the impact of Waltons Stores on those limits. It advocates the recognition of a ‘promise-detriment principle’ which operates to impose a liability on A to B, capable of arising in either a proprietary or non-proprietary context, to ensure that B suffers no detriment as a result of B’s reasonable reliance on a promise, made by A to B, that B reasonably understood to be seriously intended by A as capable of being relied on by B. It argues that the recognition of that principle should not, however, depend on a unification of the forms of equitable estoppel, as the doctrines of estoppel by representation, promissory estoppel, and proprietary estoppel rest on a number of irreducibly dissimilar principles.