question: What is the birth date of the English Judge who reaffirmed a class of "equitable mistakes" in his judgment, which enabled a claimant to avoid a contract in Solle v Butcher?
answer: 23 January 1899
context: Title: Equitable conversion
  Passage: Equitable conversion is a doctrine of the law of real property under which a purchaser of real property becomes the equitable owner of title to the property at the time he/she signs a contract binding him/her to purchase the land at a later date.  The seller retains legal title of the property prior to the date of conveyance, but this land interest is considered personal property (a right to the payment of money, rather than a right to the property).  The risk of loss is then transferred to the buyerif a house on the property burns down after the contract has been signed, but before the deed is conveyed, the buyer will nevertheless have to pay the agreed-upon purchase price for the land unless the seller in possession or deemed in possession has failed to protect it.  Such issues can and should be avoided by parties by stipulating in the contract who will bear the loss in such occurrences.  The above rule varies by jurisdiction, but is the general rule.
  Title: Hippolytus (archbishop of Gniezno)
  Passage: Hippolytus or Hipolit (died c. 1027) was an early medieval archbishop of Gniezno.  His place and date of birth date are unknown but the medieval historian Jan Długosz claims that he was of noble birth and a Roman citizen.  Modern scholars generally agree that he was not Polish.
  Title: Loss of chance in English law
  Passage: Loss of chance in English law refers to a particular problem of causation, which arises in tort and contract.  The law is invited to assess hypothetical outcomes, either affecting the claimant or a third party, where the defendant's breach of contract or of the duty of care for the purposes of negligence deprived the claimant of the opportunity to obtain a benefit and/or avoid a loss.  For these purposes, the remedy of damages is normally intended to compensate for the claimant's loss of expectation (alternative rationales include restitution and reliance).  The general rule is that while a loss of chance is compensable when the chance was something promised on a contract it is not generally so in the law of tort, where most cases thus far have been concerned with medical negligence in the public health system.
  Title: Solle v Butcher
  Passage: Solle v Butcher [1950] 1 KB 671 is an English contract law case, concerning the right to have a contract declared voidable in equity.  Denning LJ reaffirmed a class of "equitable mistakes" in his judgment, which enabled a claimant to avoid a contract.  Denning LJ said,
  Title: Duty to settle
  Passage: A liability insurance company's duty to settle is defined as an implied obligation to by the insurer to a policyholder and to a claimant to attempt "in good faith to effectuate prompt, fair, and equitable settlements of claims in which liability has become reasonably clear."  To the surprise of many, a typical liability insurance policy makes no express contractual promise to settle.  In California, "an insurer, who wrongfully refuses to accept a reasonable settlement within the policy limits is liable for the entire judgment against the insured even if it exceeds the policy limits."  A rationale for this duty is that "[w]hen an offer is made to settle a claim in excess of policy limits for an amount within policy limits, a genuine and immediate conflict of interest arises between carrier and assured."  "An insurer who denies coverage does so at its own risk.  Such factors as a belief that the policy does not provide coverage, should not affect a decision as to whether the settlement offer in question is a reasonable one."  "It is the duty of the insurer to keep the insured informed of settlement offers." " [A]n insurer potentially can be liable for unreasonably coercing an insured to contribute to a settlement fund."
  Title: Rule in Dearle v Hall
  Passage: The rule in "Dearle v Hall" (1828) 3 Russ 1 is an English common law rule to determine priority between competing equitable claims to the same asset.  The rule broadly provides that where the equitable owner of an asset purports to dispose of his equitable interest on two or more occasions, and the equities are equal between claimants, the claimant who first notifies the trustee or legal owner of the asset shall have a first priority claim.
  Title: Alfred Denning, Baron Denning
  Passage: Alfred Thompson "Tom" Denning, Baron Denning, (23 January 1899 – 5 March 1999) was an English lawyer and judge who has been called "the greatest judge of the century" and "probably the greatest English judge of modern times".  Called to the bar in 1923 as a barrister he became a King's Counsel in 1938.  Denning became a judge in 1944 with an appointment to the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice and was made a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1948 after less than five years in the High Court.  He became a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 1957 and after five years in the House of Lords returned to the Court of Appeal as Master of the Rolls in 1962, a position he held for twenty years.  In retirement he wrote several books and continued to offer opinions on the state of the common law through his writing and his position in the House of Lords.
citations: Alfred Denning, Baron Denning Solle v Butcher