FEATURED CASE

Dent v. Lyons, 1841

This is one of many cases in which the purchasers of land near Gosford claimed to have been misled about the nature of what they had bought without sight. The Berkeley Estate was near the entrance to Tuggerah Lake, 10 miles distance from the supposedly flourishing town of East Gosford. In fact, the buyers claimed, the soil was poor, the trees were scrubby, and some of the land was a foot under water. Nor was it easy to reach from Sydney. There were poor roads, if any, and Tuggerah Lake was not navigable because the entrance to the sea had dangerous waves, and it was too shallow. Time and again, the buyers succeeded against the auctioneer, on the ground of what would now be called fraudulent misrepresentation.

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