Report No. 57

3.7. Exception as to child based on moral obligation.-

As regards the exception recognised in English law (in respect of cases where property is purchased by a parent in the name of a son), it has been stated1 that the moral obligation of a parent to provide for his children is the foundation of this exception, "since it is not only natural, but reasonable in the highest degree, to presume that a parent, by purchasing in the name "of a child, means a benefit for the latter in the discharge of this moral obligation, and alsc as a token of parental affection". The like presumption exists in the case of a purchase by a husband in the name of his wife and of securities taken in her name.2

1. Story Equity Jurisprudence, (1919), p. 508, para. 1203.

2. Dunbar v. Dunbar, (1909) 2 Ch 369: 101 LT 553.