Aberdeen Cold Storage Company v Assessor for Aberdeen
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 18 July 1962 |
| Date | 18 July 1962 |
| Docket Number | No. 58. |
| Court | Lands Valuation Appeal Court (Scotland) |
Lands Valuation Appeal Court.
Lord Patrick. Lord Sorn, Lord Hunter.
ValuationValueSubjectsDerating"Industrial lands and heritages"Blast-freeze chambers for quick-freezing of fishExceptions"Storage"Rating and Valuation (Apportionment) Act, 1928, (18 and 19 Geo. V, cap. 44), sec. 3 (1) (d)Factory and Workshop Act, 1901 (1 Edw. VII, cap. 22), sec. 149.
Premises consisted partly of blast-freeze chambers and partly of low temperature storage chambers. In the former, fish and other foodstuffs were blast- or quick-frozen, a process superior to the older and slower method of freezing in that the liquid content was not lost after defrosting, and in that the bacteria causing decomposition were either destroyed or rendered quiescent. Many classes of consumers preferred frozen to fresh foodstuffs. Some of the quick-frozen food was returned immediately to its owners, but most was retained in the low temperature storage chambers until required, together with an approximately equal quantity already frozen elsewhere and held for cold storage only. The cubic capacity of, and revenue derived from, the storage chambers were greater than those relating to the blast-freeze chambers.
Held (1) that the process of quick-freezing was an altering or adapting of articles for sale within the meaning of sec. 149 of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901; but (2) that nevertheless the premises were not "industrial lands and heritages" within the meaning of sec. 3 (1) of the Rating and Valuation (Apportionment) Act, 1928, in respect that, as the major part of the ratepayers' turnover and financial return related not to quick-freezing but to low temperature storage, the premises were primarily occupied for purposes of storage and fell within exception (d) and Were not subject to derating.
Union Cold Storage Co. v. Inland Revenue, 1930 S. C. 337, and Union Cold Storage Co. v. Bancroft and OthersELR, [1931] A. C. 459, distinguished.
At a meeting of the Valuation Appeal Committee for the County of the City of Aberdeen held in Aberdeen on 23rd and 24th January 1962, to dispose of appeals against valuations made by the City Assessor for the year ending Whitsunday 1962, under the Lands Valuation (Scotland) Acts, Aberdeen Cold Storage Company, Limited, incorporated under the Companies Acts and having their registered office at 4 Riverside Drive, Aberdeen appealed against the entry appearing in the Valuation Roll for the City and Royal Burgh of Aberdeen for the year 19611962 in respect of a cold store at 4 Riverside Drive aforesaid. The original appeal was against value only, but it was later extended, with the Assessor's acquiescence, to cover also a claim that the subjects were industrial lands and heritages under the Rating and Valuation (Apportionment) Act, 1928,1 and, as such, entitled to a deduction of fifty per centum under the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1929,1 as amended by section 7 of the Local Government and Miscellaneous Financial Provisions (Scotland) Act, 1958.1 This report is concerned only with the latter question.
The following facts, inter alia, were admitted or were held by the Committee to be proved or within the knowledge of the Committee: "(1) The appellants are a limited company, incorporated under the Companies Acts. They have their registered office at 4 Riverside Drive, Aberdeen. (2) The cold store at 4 Riverside Drive, Aberdeen, which forms the subject of the appeal, belongs to and is occupied by the appellants, and is entered in the Valuation Roll for the County of the City of Aberdeen for the year 19611962 as aunum quid in a single entry under the description Cold store at 4 Riverside Drive at a total gross annual value of 4200. (3) In making this valuation the Assessor included the whole refrigeration plant, machinery and appliances installed at the premises, on the footing that the heritable subject he was valuing was a cold store as a separate self-sufficient entity or unit, which it could not be unless embracing all the refrigerating plant, machinery and appliances necessary for its functioning as such a unit. (5) The building in which the cold store is situated was originally the southmost part of an iron foundry, and it was acquired by the appellants in 1957. Within the shell of this original building has been constructed another building of two storeys containing two low temperature units, each having a lower and an upper chamber. This new building is steel framed. Walls are of six inches prefabricated insulated sections with four inches cork insulation. There are concrete floors with ten inches cork insulation, and three inches granolithic finish, and a flat roof of similar construction to the walls. The low temperature chambers are maintained at a temperature of minus twenty degrees Fahrenheit. (7) A range of ten blast-freeze chambers, timber framed and lined, and insulated to freeze to minus thirty degrees Fahrenheit, has also been erected. (10) The cubic capacity of the various parts is as follows:
(a) Total Cubic Content |
Cub. Ft. |
4 low temperature chambers |
107,000 |
10 blast-freeze chambers |
3000 |
(b) Total Holding Capacity |
|
4 low temperature chambers |
96,000 |
10 blast-freeze chambers |
2000 |
(18) The process of quick- or blast-freezing, although known in theory for over fifty years, has become a practicable matter only in the last twenty years or so as a result of the development of refrigerating machinery capable of effecting it. It is of value in the freezing of fish and other perishable foodstuffs having a large liquid content in their composition. In freezing liquids expansion takes place and the slower the freezing the greater the expansion. In the older and slower freezing process
relatively large ragged sharp crystals of ice would be formed within the tissues of the fish and these would burst the walls of the cells of which the tissue of the fish is composed, with the result that on thawing out a good deal of the original liquid content of these cells would be lost. Quick-freezing avoids this and also a tendency for the salts to separate out. This is achieved by the speed with which the very low temperature is reached. The resulting ice crystals are of almost flour-like texture and the cell walls remain intact and consequently on defrosting the cells return to their original condition. The compound compressor, commercially produced about 1946, has been the largest factor in this development. The old cold stores in operation in the early 1930s were quite incapable of getting down to the very low temperatures required today in the new methods of refrigeration. These low temperatures inhibit bacterial action, so long as they are maintained, and so assist preservation of the foodstuffs. (19) Foodstuffs blast-frozen can be kept in low temperature storage for years, but probably six months is, on account of the storage cost in relation to market value, about the maximum economic period. White fish is the main commodity handled by the first appellants. If put into cold store in accordance with the former practice and kept there for six months, such fish would on defrosting become completely dehydrated, since the tissues would be fractured and the juices would run out. If first subjected to quick-freezing, however, it would, at the end of the same period, keep its texture and quality for the reasons already explained. On sale, however, it would not be passed off as fresh but sold as frozen food, for which there is now a large market. The practice now is normally to have goods frozen or quick-frozen before putting them into cold storage. (20) White fish would first go into the blast-freezer and be brought quickly (in two or three hours) down to at least minus five degrees Fahrenheit. Then it would be transferred to the cold store proper, i.e., the low temperature chamber, which is maintained at minus twenty degrees Fahrenheit. There it would come more slowly down to minus twenty degrees Fahrenheit. Quick-freezing takes the goods through the thermal arrest stage within two hours or thereby. With the old slow freezing there was no guarantee that the thermal arrest would take place. (21) It is advisable to have the fish for quick-freezing enclosed in some kind of wrapper. The wrappers in use include polythene or cellophane packs or cartons and the fish can then, on withdrawal from store, be distributed and sold in said wrappers. There are also larger packs for bulk parcels, sometimes cases of fibre board. Without packs protection can be given by first glazing the fish with chilled water before placing them in cold store. This glazing can be repeated in the cold store every two months to maintain protection. Almost all the goods quick-frozen and/or stored in the premises under appeal are received there already in packs. No packaging to any material or significant extent is done by the appellants in their said premises. (22) There is now practically no market for slow-frozen products. But quick-frozen goods can safely be sent as far as New Zealand, for example, provided they are accommodated on the journey in a suitable properly insulated container. Even when fresh fish is available there are many consumers who nowadays prefer to purchase the frozen product. At the height of the fresh fish season there is a surplus of fresh fish to the demand. In order to maintain such fish in a saleable condition it must be quick-frozen, and in this condition it can readily be sold. In many cases consumers such as hospitals, hotels, prison authorities and institutional customers prefer to purchase frozen foodstuffs rather than the corresponding fresh foodstuffs. A number of the frozen products handled by the first appellants are advertised for cooking without prior defrosting or thawing. (23) The deterioration in condition which takes place by the efflux of time in fish which has not been frozen or has been frozen only by the old slow method, is largely due...To continue reading
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