bona fide

The central requirement of bona fide and in good faith is honesty. The honesty will relate to the action or thing; and perhaps a consideration of motive: whether for personal gain or some other ulterior motive.

Bona Fide vs Carelessness

In Jones v Gordon 2 App Cas 616, a distinction between "honestly blundering and careless" and a person who had not acted honestly, that is, not necessarily with the intention to defraud, but not with an honest belief that the transaction was a valid one; and "... he must have had a suspicion that there was something wrong, and that he refrained from asking questions because he thought in his own secret mind - I suspect that there is something wrong, and if I ask questions and make further enquiry, it will be no longer my suspecting it, but my knowing it, and then I shall not be able to recover - I think that is dishonesty".

A thing is likely to be done in good faith when it is done honestly, whether done negligently or not. A different standard applies to fiduciary relationships which are of the utmost good faith.

Whether action is taken in good faith entirely relies on the subject matter and purpose of the law and the action taken by the individual.

Context of Bona Fide and Good faith

In the words of the Court of Appeal in Street v Derbyshire Unemployed Workers' Centre [2004] EWCA Civ 964:

Thus in the context of a claim or representation, the sole issue as to honesty may just turn on its truth. But even where the content of the statement is true or reasonably believed by its maker to be true, an issue of honesty may still creep in according to whether it made with sincerity of intention for which the Act provides protection or for an ulterior and, say, malicious, purpose. The term is to be found in many statutory and common-law contexts, and because they are necessarily conditioned by their context, it is dangerous to apply judicial attempts at definition in one context to that of another...

In that case, good faith was compared to a different reference point for the difference between truth and falsity, as opposed to another case where it was said "[bona fide] reasonable belief in …[its substantial truth], the notion of 'good faith' [was] the only vehicle for considering the honesty or dishonesty of the allegation". This case latter case, there was no context to interpret what had to be bona fide, other the belief of honesty.

In Central Estates (Belgravia) Ltd v Woolgar; Liverpool Corporation v Husan [1972] 1 QB 48, Court of Appeal, said:

"… under this statute a claim is made 'in good faith' when it is made honestly and with no ulterior motive. …"; and by Megaw LJ in the same case, "The words 'in good faith', in my opinion, mean 'honestly'. A claim is not made honestly if it is made with the intention of committing a criminal offence, or of facilitating the future commission of a criminal offence. It does not make it any the less a dishonest claim because the intended criminal offence is itself not what is called an offence involving dishonesty.".