Luke Barnes

Luke's practice encompasses competing property interests, the subtle issues surrounding proprietary estoppel, capacity and undue influence, and financial provision for spouses, cohabitants, dependants and children – often in the shadow of separation, divorce, bankruptcy or death. Experienced in civil and family litigation and equally at home providing punchy, persuasive advocacy or carefully reasoned advice, he frequently gives seminars and contributes articles to legal publications.

Luke is qualified to accept instructions under the Bar Council Public Access Scheme.

luke_barnes

1996 Gray's Inn call
M.A. (Oxon), M.A. (City)
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Degree/University
M.A. Classics (New College, Oxford)
M.A. Law (City University)
Memberships
Property Bar Association,
Family Law Bar Association,
Franco-British Lawyers' Society,
Lawyers for Liberty
Areas of Practice
Real property and trusts of land
Co-ownership, cohabitants' and family property disputes
Resulting and constructive trusts, proprietary estoppel
Undue influence, capacity, contentious probate
Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996
Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975
Mental Capacity Act 2005
Ancillary relief
Financial provision for children
Landlord and Tenant (residential)
Civil common law
Reported Cases
Griffiths v Cork [2009] WTLR 955 (Ch)Capacity to execute disposition of beneficial interest – burden of proof where disponor suffering from mental illness

Babar v Anis [2005] 3 FCR 216 (Ch)Promissory estoppel as a defence to possession proceedings brought by former 'husband' against former 'wife' following decree of nullity (case cited in Snell's Equity 32nd Ed at 12-015)

Waters Associates International Ltd v Hanover Search & Select Ltd [2004] CLY 664Contract – dispute between recruitment consultancies over payment of commission

Sam Yorke v Ali Jawad [2003] CLY 2717Landlord & Tenant – possession claim, disrepair, breach of quiet enjoyment by threatening tenant's wife
Languages
Fluent French
Some Arabic
Outside Interests
Family life, skiing, riverside walks / cycle rides, travel in France
Articles
"Stack .v. Dowden - the principles in practice" - 2007
(referred to in Williamson .v. Sheikh [2008] EWCA 990
'The Stack .v. Dowden presumption in 2008' - 2008
'Defining Detriment' -2009
'Context is Everything' - 2009
'Shouldn't this Joint Tenancy be Severed?' - 2011
'Adult Children and the 1975 Inheritance Act' - 2011
Jones v Kernott - A Practical Guide - 2012

 

An Englishman abroad

Mark Jones explores the tricky issue of domicile of origin over domicile of choice in Morris v Davies

 

The recent decision of the High Court in the case of Morris v Davies [2011] EWHC 1773 (Ch) emphasised the tenacious nature of a person's domicile of origin and the intensely fact-based approach to considering assertions of substitution of the same by an alternative domicile of choice.

The dispute arose from the administration of the estate of the late Owen Davies, who was born in England on 1 November 1963 and who died unexpectedly of a heart attack in Paris on the 26 November 2008, aged just 45. What happened thereafter informed much of the considerable antipathy in the case and the media interest at the time of the trial, where those close to the deceased agreed to and did conceal the fact of his death and his funeral from his family, with such a degree of success that for several months after both events they remained in complete ignorance.

 

Read more

The Dowry in law

"The Dowry in law" by Miss Suki K Johal,

Barrister at 3 Dr Johnson's Building. Temple. London

In recent years there has been a proliferation of cases in the English courts on the issue of Indian dowries particularly in areas of high Asian population. The Oxford English Dictionary broadly defines dowry as encompassing 'money or property the wife brings with her to the husband's home; the portion given with the wife; a present or gift given by a man to or for his bride'. The Chambers English Dictionary provides 'the property which a woman brings to her husband at marriage; sometimes a gift given to or for a wife at marriage'. These definitions provide that dowry has two constituents- the giving of property to the bride from parents and kin and the giving of jewellery from the in-laws.

Read more

3 Dr Johnson's Buildings © 2010 • Website design by Mango Swiss Ltd • Photography by Thanco Photography