Saunders v Anglia Building Society [1970] UKHL 5 also known as Gallie v Lee is an English contract law

English contract law

English contract law is a body of law regulating contracts in England and Wales. With its roots in the lex mercatoria and the activism of the judiciary during the industrial revolution, it shares a heritage with countries across the Commonwealth , and the United States...

 case in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. It established that in contract law the burden lies with the plaintiff

Plaintiff

A plaintiff , also known as a claimant or complainant, is the term used in some jurisdictions for the party who initiates a lawsuit before a court...

 to demonstrate he has not acted negligently and, that consequently, the plea of non est factum

Non est factum

Non est factum is a doctrine in contract law that allows a signing party to escape performance of the agreement. A claim of non est factum means that the signature on the contract was signed by mistake, without knowledge of its meaning, but was not done so negligently...

cannot normally be claimed by a person of full capacity.

Facts

Old Mrs Gallie, who had broken her spectacles, signed a document without first informing herself of its contents. She was lied to by her nephew's business partner, Mr Lee, that the documents were merely to confirm a gift of her house to her nephew. In fact, she signed papers allowing the nephew's business partner to grant a mortgage over the property in favour of Anglia Building Society. When the business partner defaulted on the mortgage, Anglia Building Society claimed to foreclose and repossess the House. Mrs Gallie died before the litigation reached the House of Lords, and was represented by Saunders.

Court of Appeal

Lord Denning MR

Master of the Rolls

The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the second most senior judge in England and Wales, after the Lord Chief Justice. The Master of the Rolls is the presiding officer of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal...

, reversing the judge’s decision, found that Mrs Gallie was out of luck. Grown literate people cannot simply get away with signing things, and not being bound.

House of Lords

The House of Lords upheld the Court of Appeal, though disapproving of the strength of Lord Denning’s criticisms.

Lord Reid said the defence is unavailable for the following reasons.