{{Short description|English legal case}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox court case | name = Jones v Lock | court = Court of Appeal in Chancery | image = | caption = | date decided = | full name = | citations = (1865) 1 Ch App 25 | judges = | prior actions = | subsequent actions = | opinions = Lord Cranworth LC | transcripts = | keywords = Certainty, express trusts }}
'''''Jones v Lock''''' (1865) 1 Ch App 25 is an English trusts law case, concerning the formality for creating a gift, and the possibility that if the gift were not properly completed with the required legal form, a trust could be found. The Court of Appeal in Chancery held that equity would not "perfect an imperfect gift" by creating a trust, if the proper formality for the gift had not been completed.<ref name=Moffat>{{cite book|pages=158-160|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EXebm5FeaIcC&pg=PA160&dq=%22Jones+v+Lock%22+-wikipedia&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=|title=Trusts Law: Text and Materials|first=Graham |last=Moffat|year=2005|isbn=9781139445283|publisher=Cambridge University Press |access-date=4 August 2025}}</ref><ref name=Ramjohn>{{cite book|pages=45-46|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u_9S4LERKpwC&pg=PA45&dq=%22Jones+v+Lock%22+-wikipedia&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=|title=Cases & Materials on Trusts|first=Mohamed |last=Ramjohn|year=2004|publisher=Cavendish|isbn=9781859417447|access-date=4 August 2025}}</ref><ref name=Hudson>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jkzrDLuWBNIC&pg=PR43&dq=%22Jones+v+Lock%22+-wikipedia&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=|pages=68|title=Equity & Trusts|first=Alastair |last=Hudson |year=2014|isbn=9781843145172|publisher=Cavendish|access-date=4 August 2025}}</ref>
==Facts== A father returned from a business trip without a gift for his son. When the family told him off, he put a £900 cheque in the baby’s hand, and said
{{Cquote|look you here, I give this to baby; it is for himself and I am going to put it away for him, and will give him a great deal more along with it.}}
The wife said the baby might tear it, and the father said, ‘it is his own, and he may do what he likes with it’. He locked it in the safe and died six days later. It was argued that although there was never an outright transfer, because he had not actually endorsed the cheque by signing it, there was no trust of the cheque for the baby.<ref name=Moffat /><ref name=Ramjohn /> "Based on the surrounding circumstances," apparently the father was "in a fit of pique," according to one casebook.<ref name=Hudson />
==Judgment== The Court of Appeal in Chancery held that there was no trust, because the father’s intention was an outright transfer. They refused to perfect an imperfect gift through a successful declaration of trust. Lord Cranworth LC gave the judgment of the court.<ref name=Moffat /><ref name=Ramjohn /><ref name=Hudson />
==See also== {{Clist trust certainty}} *English trusts law
==References== {{reflist|2}}
Category:English trusts case law Category:Court of Chancery cases Category:1865 in British law Category:1865 in case law