FLK1 · Contract

Duress & undue influence

SQE1 revision notes — the key rules, leading cases and common traps for this topic, in plain English and current to 2026.

CON.08 — Duress & Undue Influence

Both are vitiating factors making a contract voidable (not void). The innocent party may rescind; bars to rescission apply (affirmation, lapse of time, third-party rights, impossibility of restitutio in integrum).

Duress (common law)

Illegitimate pressure that overbears consent. Three categories:

Duress to the person — threats of violence. Need only be a reason for entering the contract (Barton v Armstrong).
Duress to goods — wrongful threats to seize/damage property.
Economic duress — the SQE workhorse. Requires:
1. Illegitimate pressure (usually a threatened breach of contract or unlawful act);
2. that was a significant cause inducing the contract (DSND Subsea v Petroleum Geo-Services); and
3. the victim had no realistic practical alternative (e.g. no time to find another supplier, Atlas Express v Kafco; The Atlantic Baron).

Lawful act duress exists but is rare in commercial dealings. The majority in Pakistan International Airline Corporation v Times Travel (UK) Ltd [2021] UKSC 40 identified two recognised situations: exploiting knowledge of a crime by the claimant or a close relative through a threat of prosecution to obtain a personal benefit, and using illegitimate means to manoeuvre a claimant into vulnerability and force a waiver of its claim. Both involve highly reprehensible conduct ([4]). The boundaries are not fixed, but extensions require caution ([3]); monopoly power, lawful hard bargaining and a bad-faith assertion of an entitlement are not enough by themselves ([52], [57]).

Undue influence (equity)

Renders a transaction voidable where consent is produced by unacceptable influence (Royal Bank of Scotland v Etridge (No 2)).

Actual UI — proven overt pressure/coercion.
Presumed UI — arises where (a) a relationship of trust and confidence exists (irrebuttably for some, e.g. solicitor–client, doctor–patient, parent–child, trustee–beneficiary; NOT automatically husband–wife or banker–customer) and (b) the transaction calls for explanation / is not readily explicable by the relationship. This raises an evidential presumption, shifting the burden to the dominant party to rebut (usually by showing independent legal advice).

Third-party / surety cases (Etridge protocol)

Where one party (often a spouse) charges the home to secure another's debt, the bank is put on inquiry. To avoid constructive notice it must insist the surety take independent legal advice and obtain solicitor confirmation; otherwise the charge is unenforceable against the surety.

Common traps

Voidable, not void — rescission can be lost.
Economic duress requires illegitimate pressure, causation and no reasonable alternative. All three are needed: having no alternative does not make lawful hard bargaining illegitimate (Times Travel, [1], [78]-[80]).
Manifest disadvantage was rejected as a label in Etridge; the test is whether the transaction calls for explanation.
Independent advice rebuts the presumption / discharges the bank's duty — it doesn't prove UI.
H–W is not an automatic trust relationship; trust/confidence must be shown on the facts.

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In January, a doctor negotiating the sale of his medical practice tells the buyer, truthfully, that the practice generates around £2,000 a month in income. Contracts are not signed until May. Between January and May the doctor falls seriously ill, stops practising, and the patient list collapses, so that by the time of signing the practice earns almost nothing. The doctor says nothing about this change. The buyer, still relying on the January figure, completes the purchase and then discovers the true position.

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