Doctrine of Proprietary Estoppels

Abstract

The body of law in a State consists of two parts, substantive and adjective law. The former prescribes those rules of civil conduct which declare the rights and duties of all who are subject to the law. The latter relates to the remedial agencies and procedure by which rights are maintained, their invasion redressed, and the methods by which such results are accomplished in judicial tribunals. An Estoppel is a rule of evidence.An estoppel is a bar that prevents one from asserting a claim or right that contradicts what one has said or done before or what has been legally established as true.It is a bar that prevents the re-litigation of issues.It is an affirmative defense alleging good-faith reliance on a misleading representation and an injury or detrimental change in position resulting from that reliance.“Estoppe” says Lord Coke, comes from the French word estoupe, from whence the English word Stopped; and it is called an estoppel or conclusion, because a man’s own act or acceptance stoppeth or closesth up his mouth to allege or plead the truth. Estoppel may also be defined to be a legal result of conclusion arising from an admission which has either been actually made, or which the law presumes to have been made, and which is binding on all persons whom it affects. In using the term estoppel, one is of course aware of its kaleidoscopic varieties. One reads of estoppel by conduct, by deed, by latches, by misrepresentation, by negligence, by silence and so on. There is also an estoppel by judgment and by verdict: there, however, obviously involve procedure. The first named varieties have certain aspects in common. But these aspects are not always interpreted by the same rules in all courts. The institution seems to be flexible. Kinds of EstoppelsEstoppels are many kinds, namely,• Administrative collateral estoppel.• Assignee estoppel.• Assignor estoppel.• Collateral estoppel.• Equitable estoppel.• Estoppel by conduct.• Estoppel by Contract.• Estoppel by deed.• Estoppel by election.• Estoppel by inaction• Estoppel by judgment.• Estoppel by latches.• Estoppel by misrepresentation.• Estoppel by negligence.• Estoppel by record.• Estoppel by representation.• Estoppel by silence.• Estoppel by standing by.• Estoppel by verdict.• Estoppel by warranty.• Estoppel in pais.• Estoppel on the record. • File wrapper estoppel.• Judicial estoppel.• Legal estoppel.• Marking estoppel.• Promissory estoppel.• Prosecution history estoppel.• Quasi estoppel.• Technical estoppel. There is also another kind of estoppel which is called the Proprietary Estoppel. In Re: Basham (dec’d) Mr. Edward Nugee (sitting as High Court judge) set out the principle of proprietary estoppel, in its broadest form, in the following terms:“Where one person, A, has acted to his detriment on the faith of a belief, which was known to and encouraged by another person. B, that either has or is going to be given a right in or over B property. B cannot insist on his strict legal rights if to do so would be in consistent with a belief.”