Proprietary claims and unjust enrichment

Abstract

This thesis explains when an unjust enrichment gives rise to proprietary restitution. It argues that not all unjust enrichments lead to a proprietary response, and that this can be explained on the basis of autonomy. The original contribution of this thesis is it demonstrates that when a defendant is unjustly enriched by a claimant’s mistaken payment, and from the outset the claimant’s purpose for making the transfer is impossible to carry out, only then is proprietary restitution available. This is because when a claimant’s purpose for transferring the enrichment can never be fulfilled, there is no reason to bind the claimant to the transfer, and at no point does the defendant have a reason to retain the enrichment. As there is no justification for upholding the transfer, the goal of autonomy protection justifies the imposition of a resulting trust. It is shown that once it is accepted that the foundations of proprietary restitution are based on the notion of impossibility, one can adequately reconcile the case law.