BUSINESS LAW

CASE STUDY
ON
BALFOUR VS BALFOUR
(1919)2KB571
A.GAYATRI(1226113101)
A.NAVYA(1226113qo3)
A.NEENV RAJU(1226113106)
 FACTS
•Mr. Balfour was a civil engineer, worked for the Government as the Director
of Irrigation in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

•Mrs. Balfour was living with him.

•In 1915, they both came back to England during Mr. Balfour's leave.

•Mrs. Balfour suffered from rheumatic arthritis and her doctor advised her to stay in
England.

•As Mr. Balfour's boat was about to set sail, he promised her £30 a month until she
came back to Ceylon.

•After some time they drifted apart and Mr. Belfour wrote a letter to Mrs. Balfour
stating that it would be better for them to stay that way.
 THE CASE
•In March 1918, Mrs. Balfour sued him to keep up with the monthly £30 payments.

• In July she got a decree nisi and in December she obtained an order for alimony.

•In the first instance, Sargant J. held that the husband was under an obligation to
support his wife.

•The husband appealed. Barrington-Ward K.C. and Du Parcq for the appellant.

•Where husband and wife are only temporarily living apart an agreement like that in
the present case confers no contractual rights. There was no agreement for a
separation. The agreement here was a purely domestic arrangement intended to take
effect until the wife should rejoin her husband.

•Hawke K.C.and Tebbs for the respondent.

•Where a husband and wife are living together the wife is as capable of contracting
with her husband that he shall give her a particular sum as she is of contracting with
any other person.
 THE JUDGEMENT
•The case has raised two important questions.

1. Is it necessary that both the parties intend that an agreement be legally binding so as
to be an enforceable contract?

2. What are the circumstances in which a court can decline to enforce an agreement
between spouses?

• The onus was upon the plaintiff.

•The plaintiff has not established any contract.

• The parties were living together, the wife intending to return.

• The letters do not evidence such a contract, or amplify the oral evidence which was
given by the wife, which is not in dispute.