PT-2023-001131 - [2025] EWHC 2728 (Ch)

As to the principles for setting a gift on the grounds of mistake, there was again no real dispute as to the applicable principles. There must be (a) a causative mistake (b) which is of sufficient gravity and (c) it would be unconscionable for the recipient to retain the benefit of the gift: Pitt v Holt [2013] UKSC 26, at [38].

In deciding whether to set aside a gift for mistake, the court is inevitably engaged in an evaluative process. See the analysis of Lord Walker, in Pitt v Holt at [128]:

“… the court cannot decide the issue of what is unconscionable by an elaborate set of rules. It must consider in the round the existence of a distinct mistake (as compared with total ignorance or disappointed expectations), its degree of centrality to the transaction in question and the seriousness of its consequences, and make an evaluative judgment whether it would be unconscionable, or unjust, to leave the mistake uncorrected. The court may and must form a judgment about the justice of the case.”