page_title: Akers v Samba Financial Group
section_title: Supreme Court
hierarchical_section_title: Akers v Samba Financial Group / Judgments / Supreme Court
caption_attribution_description: English: Official portrait of Lord Mance Full sized portrait of Lord Mance
context_page_description: Akers v Samba Financial Group [2017] UKSC 6, [2017] AC 424 is a judicial decision of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom relating to the conflict of laws, trust law and insolvency law.
  The key issues in the litigation evolved significantly during the appeals process, meaning that the issues addressed by the Supreme Court differed from those considered by the Court of Appeal, which in turn were different from those which were considered at first instance by the Vice Chancellor. However, by the time the case reached the Supreme Court the core issue was whether a transfer of trust property to a bona fide purchaser for value without notice, which extinguished the beneficial interest of a company in liquidation, was void as a "disposition of property" after the commencement of winding up.
  The case involved consideration of several issues of law which the Supreme Court described as "novel and difficult".
  The appeal was heard against an application to determine a preliminary issue. Accordingly for the purposes of the hearing the allegations were assumed to be true.
context_section_description: Before the Supreme Court the nature of the arguments had evolved once again.  The main judgment was given by Lord Mance, with whom all members of the court agreed.  Short concurring judgments were given by Lord Neuberger, Lord Sumption and Lord Collins.  Whilst Lord Mance dealt with the primary issue (relating to section 127), most of the concurring judgments largely commented on ancillary issues of wider law which related to the broader issues in the case.
  In the Supreme Court the primary issue was whether the overreaching of a beneficial interest in trust property by the trustee transferring it to a bona fide purchaser for value without notice amounted to a "disposition" for the purposes of section 127 of the Insolvency Act 1986.  If so, then it would be void unless the court otherwise ordered.  Samba argued that extinguishing an equitable interest in this manner was not a disposition.  It simply meant that equity would no longer recognise a right in the beneficiary that formerly existed.
caption: Lord Mance.
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