Byrne v Rudd

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 03 November 1920
• Date: 03 November 1920
• Court: Court of Appeal (Ireland)

K. B. D.,

Byrne

and

Rudd

Authority to make - Ultra vires transaction - No right to retain benefit so obtained - Return of premium - Friendly Societies Act, 1896 (59 60 Vict., c. 25), s. 45.

A person was induced to take out an endowment policy in an assurance society registered under the Friendly Societies Act, 1896 (59 & 60 Vict., c. 25), on the representation of the society's agent, that on payment of a first premium the insured would obtain an immediate loan of £100 without security and without interest. Under the Act a registered society can make loans only to members of at least one full year's standing. Having paid the premium, the insured applied to the society for a loan of £100; but, relying on the statute and their rules, the society refused to grant the application. Thereupon the insured, alleging false and fraudulent representation on the part of the society's agent, claimed by civil bill process the return of the premium:—Held, by the King's Bench Division (Gibson and Gordon, JJ.), that the complete absence of authority in the agent to make the representation, or to give the undertaking, made it impossible for the plaintiff either to fix the society with fraud or to recover back the cash; and that, viewed as an ultra vires transaction, the payment could not found any legal...