Overpayments held not to be recoverable


In Leslie v Farrar Construction Ltd [2016] EWCA Civ 1041 the Court of Appeal held that the claimant was not entitled to recover an overpayment which he had made to the defendant in respect of five developments which had been completed. The claimant was held to be unable to prove that he had made the overpayment as a result of a mistake given that he was found to have taken a conscious decision to pay the sums requested without investigation and he had paid the money in order to ‘close the transaction’. The Court of Appeal was not willing to interfere with the findings of fact made by the trial judge, namely that the claimant was willing to pay the sums requested by the defendant without further investigation provided that the sums claimed were within the agreed budget.