PRIORITY OF INTERESTS IN PROPERTY AND THE RULE IN DEARLE v. HALL

Abstract

The desire by man to acquire property is limitless and there are circumstances where two or more persons may be laying claim to the same property and there will be need to determine the property of interests among the rival claimants. The courts over the years have evolved the Temporal Order Rule which means “first in time is stronger in law” which is being used as the basic rule in determining priority of competing interests in property. There is another rule developed under the English system which is referred to as the rule in Dearle vs. Hall. The rule in Dearle vs. Hall is an English common law rule to determine priority between competing equitable claims to the same asset. The rule broadly provides that where the equitable owner of an asset purports to dispose of his equitable interest on two or more occasions, and the equities are equal between claimants, the claimant who first notifies the trustee or legal owner of the assets shall have a first priority claim. This paper examined the broad application of the rule in Dearle vs. Hall to priority of interests in property, it’s pitfalls and criticisms and recommended that the rule be replaced with a system of registration of the competing encumbrances in pure personality.