Bankers Rights Of Set-Off (Jersey)

Rather than applying the English common law concept of set-off, some Jersey cases suggest that the local courts should instead apply an analogous Jersey concept of ‘compensation’ as referred to in the Privy Council case of Dyson and Another v Godfray 1884 9 App. Cases 726 and more recently in Guidon Investments Limited v de Carteret (1980) JJ 109.

The precise parameters of ‘compensation’ may be a little unclear as the concept originated in the island’s Norman French ancestry many centuries ago. Such illustrious authorities as Le Geyt, Houard, Basnage, Terrien and Pothier writing over the course of the last few centuries expounded upon the Jersey law of compensation permissible for liquid demands - that is, admitted debts or debts capable of being readily proved.