X, husband, went bankrupt and his creditors were mortgagees over his house, in which the wife had a beneficial interest. CA held that the bank were entitled to a possession and sale order and that only in exceptional circumstances would the spouse of the bankrupt party, in whose name the house was registered, be able to resist sale. Instead, CA merely granted a period of postponement.
Nourse LJ: The voice of the creditors will usually prevail and it is irrelevant that the house is still being used as a matrimonial home. The presence of children is not exceptional circumstances. “They are the melancholy consequences of debt and improvidence with which every civilised society has been familiar.”
