Josephine Hayes

She undertakes work advising and representing clients in civil litigation concerning banking securities: guarantees, mortgages and charges. She has appeared in significant reported cases about interpretation of the real property statutes.

She undertakes company law work and was instructed in what is believed to be the first minority shareholder’s petition ever brought in the High Court of the Isle of Man.

She undertakes advising and representing clients in partnership matters.

She undertakes work relating to insolvency, both corporate and individual, particularly about voidable transactions defrauding creditors.

She undertakes work relating to equity and equitable remedies; co-ownership and trusts; wills and succession.

Swift 1st Ltd v the Chief Land Registrar CA judgment

April 1, 2015

Supreme Court gives guidance on newcomer injunctions

December 15, 2023

• Beharie v Swift Advances PLC [2021] EWHC 3666 (Ch). Josephine Hayes represented the defendant mortgage lender. The First-Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) (Land Registration) rejected the claimant’s contentions that the secured lending transaction between the parties was regulated by the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and that the claimant had acted as a consumer. After all avenues of appeal against the tribunal’s decision were exhausted, the High Court struck out parts of two claims which the claimant had brought which sought to re-litigate those issues.
• Victus Estates (2) Ltd v Munroe & others [2021] EWHC 2411 (Ch): Josephine Hayes represented two mortgage lenders. The High Court, allowing their appeal, set aside decisions of the court below that transfers on sale of two properties were shams. The transactions were effective to charge beneficial interests in the properties to the lenders despite the finding that the purchasers had known that the vendor had forged his co-owners’ signatures on the transfers.
• Swift Advances plc v Ahmed [2015] EWHC 3265 (Ch), [2016] BPIR 197, [2016] WTLR 1059. Josephine Hayes represented the applicant, a mortgage lender, on its application under section 423 Insolvency Act 1986. The High Court set aside two trust deeds as transactions for the purpose of placing assets beyond the reach of creditors.
• Swift 1st Ltd v Chief Land Registrar [2015] EWCA Civ 330, [2015] Ch 602. In this very significant real property case concerning the nature of interests in registered land Josephine Hayes represented the respondent. The appeal court upheld an order in the respondent’s favour for a statutory indemnity, notwithstanding that the respondent’s registered legal charge was discovered to have been a forgery.
• Swift 1st Ltd v Colin [2011] EWHC 2410 (Ch), [2012] Ch 206: Josephine Hayes represented the claimant, which had an equitable charge by deed. The High Court ruled that the claimant had power in exercise of its statutory power of sale to sell and transfer the land charged, despite not having a legal charge.
• Bindra v Chopra [2009] EWCA Civ 203, [2009] 2 FLR 786, [2009] 3 FCR 425, [2009] WTLR 781. Josephine Hayes represented the appellant in a dispute over the effect of an unusual and unhappily drafted trust deed, executed upon the transfer of a property to a brother and sister as joint owners.
• Witkowska v Kaminski [2006] EWHC 1940 (Ch), [2007] 1 FLR 1547, [2006] 3 F.C.R. 250, [2006] WTLR. 1293. On an appeal and cross-appeal from a decision made under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. The High Court held that Art. 12 of the EC Treaty, prohibiting discrimination on the ground of nationality, did not apply to the substantive law of succession to a deceased’s estate.
• Humphreys v Humphreys [2004] EWHC 2201 (Ch), [2005] 1 FCR 712: a claim brought by the owner of a dwelling to have a trust deed in favour of her son set aside on the grounds of presumed undue influence.
• First National Bank plc v Achampong [2003] EWCA Civ 487, [2004] 1 FCR 18, [2003] All ER (D) 08 (Apr). The appeal court allowed an appeal by a mortgage lender against dismissal of its claim to an equitable charge over a husband’s interest under Law of Property Act 1925 s 63 and to an order for sale under Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 ss 14, 15.
• First National Bank plc v. Walker [2001] 1 FLR 505, [2001] 1 FCR 21, [2001] Fam. Law 182, Times, February 13, 2001, CA. The appeal court allowed an appeal by a mortgage lender in a mortgagee’s possession action against a husband and wife which the wife was defending on the grounds of alleged undue influence. The wife had acknowledged the mortgage as valid in earlier matrimonial proceedings and was not permitted to run inconsistent cases.

• Editor of Atkin on Landlord & Tenant (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2014 issues).
• Contributor to Law Commission working party on property rights of unmarried cohabitants: Law Com 29th Annual Report.
• Author of chapter on selection criteria in 1999 report of Lord Chancellor’s Working Party on Equal Opportunities in Judicial Appointments & Silk.

Josephine Hayes went to LMH, Oxford, where she read Greats, obtaining a First. After studying law at The City University and being called to the Bar by Lincoln’s Inn, where she was a Jenkins scholar, she studied at Yale Law School on an alumni fellowship.

MA (Oxon), Dip. L (The City University), LLM (Yale).