Ownerless goods. Under English law the general principle is that any property (of any type, including land) that is genuinely ownerless reverts to the Crown. In practice, the courts rarely determine property to be ownerless, and a number of devices (such as a ResultingTrust) can be employed to find an owner where otherwise there would be none. The problem of bona vacantia seems to arise most commonly in the context of public fund-raising drives. If funds are raised for a particular purpose, and there is a surplus of funds when the purpose is fulfilled, then the surplus may be deemed ownerless. Although a resulting trust could (theoretically) arise in favour of the contributors, such a trust would most likely be unworkable. See, in particular, ReWestSussexConstabularyWidowsFund1971. However, in AirJamaicaVCharlton1999, it was ruled (in line with West Sussex and perhaps out of line with the leading authority of WestdeutscheVIslington1996) that a resulting trust would arise where the number of contributors was small and readily ascertainable.
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